NELSON'S LEGACY 



J:/amiltonyi^ 

^ Mr Story i 



cjaS*^^*'^: 



FRANK DAN BY 



V 'p. 



A^ 



aN 



'%<i^'" 
.^^••^. 






o. 



,x^- •^> 



■^^^ . 





: ^^%= 


% 




"^^ 


/^ ^' 


x^^. - ,^'-7: . 


,0^ 





,-1 X, 



>^., 



'A V"^ 



-^z. v> 



o\^- 






-^- 






.V -r- 



.^^• 



-y^ 



5^ 



o 0' 



^, ,^' 



,0 



o ■ 









-^^v 



.,vv^^' 



V.y>„ 






\^ '< 



^A >^" 



■^^> ..\^' 



cT' .\ 






'•^,. V 



.H -Ci 









00^ 






'^. ,<^^■ 















.^'"^^ 




Oo 






S^-^^ 



NELSON'S LEGACY 




FROM THE PAINTING BY GEORGE ROMNEY. IN THE 
POSSESSION OF SIR ERNEST CASSEL, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O. 



NELSON'S LEGACY 

LADY HAMILTON : 
HER STORY & TRAGEDY 



BY 

FRANK DANBY 



WITH EIGHT PHOTOGRAVURE'S 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



9.-i 



^^^.\f1 



^-tsS 



1 7 \ ^^^^ 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

rxAHE following is a true and authentic account 
-^ of the birth, life, and death of the notorious 
adventuress, sometime Emy Lyon, but ultimately 
the wife of Sir William Hamilton, his Majesty's 
Minister at Naples, together with the story of 
her many lapses from virtue both before and after • 
her connection with Immortal Nelson, the Hero 
of the Nile. It has been compiled from con- 
temporary documents, the writings of eye-wit- 
nesses, and other' reliable evidence. We trust that 
sufficient excuse will be found for the relation in 
the moral lesson conveyed. The features of the 
unhappy subject of this memoir were limned by 
all the most illustrious painters and designers of 
the century. To gratify the curiosity of those who 
would fain investigate the charms of one who 
provoked so much controversy whilst she lived, 
and has been the occasion of so much argument 
since she paid the final debt of nature in the poor 



vi Author's Note 

lodging-house at Calais, has proved a task not 
wholly uncongenial. 

Our acknowledgments and those of our readers 
are due to many ladies and gentlemen who have 
added their quota to our knowledge, and allowed 
generous access to their treasures for the benefit 
of our illustrations. 



CONTENTS 



1. Introduces Henry Cadogan and relates the events 

that led to his strange situation at Great Nesse . 1 

2. Little Emma is carried to Hawarden and repudiated 

by Mr. George Cadogan ; welcomed by her grand- 
mother, she is sent to school, where she meets her 
first suitor ; and, worldly prudence dictating, she 
accepts her first engagement on life's stage . . 22 

3. Master Will Masters creates a diversion at Broadlane 

Hall, and Mrs. Thomas decides that Emy must 
shine in some other sphere ..... 39 

4. Emy misbehaves in Chatham Place and follows it by 

indiscretion at Mr. Linley's. She meets Mr. Harry 
Angelo ........ 53 

5. Captain Willett Payne is unexpectedly recalled to his 

ship, and poor Emma finds herself in difficulties 
and without means. In her extremity she applies 
to Dr. Graham, who befriends her, and then en- 
gages her for exhibition in his * Temple of Health.' 
She meets Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh . . 86 

6. Emma, entering into the second stage of her career, is 

taken from London by Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh 
and established by him at Up Park. He treats her 
ill, and she is solaced by Mr. Charles Greville, whose 
intervention has immediate consequence. She is 



viii Contents 



dismissed from Up Park, but a correspondence she 
immediately establishes with Mr. Greville indicates 
that she has found a new protector . . . 102 

7. Mr. Greville secures a mistress and a cook for one 

low rate of payment. But desires a pupil more 
ardently than either. Emma incurs his displeasure 
by her high spirits, but wins his forgiveness by the 
humility of her demeanour. It is arranged that her 
portrait should be painted by Mr. Romney . . 125 

8. Emma is taken by Cliarles Greville to Mr. Romney's 

studio in Cavendish Square, and there sits for him 
in many attitudes, and also in the nude. To this 
Mr. Greville takes objection, and much accrues 
from the circumstance. She makes the acquaintance 
of Sir William Hamilton, who at once expresses 
his admiration of her, and endorses his nephew's 
taste 141 

9. Sir William Hamilton becomes more and more en- 

amoured with his nephew's mistress. Mr. Greville 
sees great advantage in an arrangement which will 
secure his succession to his uncle's estate, whilst 
leaving him free to contract an alliance in accord- 
ance \Nath his fortune . . . . . .163 

10. Emma, neglected and abandoned by Greville, solicited 

by the King of Italy, and pursued by the gentlemen 

of his Court, yields at length to Sir William Hamilton 182 

11. Sir William Hamilton brings Emma to London to ask 

the consent of the King to his marriage. But in an 
interview with Greville she offers to give up all her 
prospects if he will restore her to her old place in 
his heart. Mr. Greville rejects the proposal and 
accuses her of having been unfaithful to him with 
Mr. Romney. She seeks Mr. Romney, whose mind 
is already clouded, and who dreams that she has 
been his mistress, and not only his inspiration. 
She marries Sir William Hamilton . . . 203 



Contents ix 

CHAPTER PAGB 

12. Explains the political position at the Court of Naples, 

when Emma returns as the wife of the British Am- 
bassador. The Queen uses Emma as one of the 
pawns in the game she is playing with the Powers. 
Emma imagines herself the Bishop, the Castle, and 
all the larger pieces ...... 234 

13. Chronicles the appearance of Nelson on the scene. 

The destruction of the French Navy is followed by 
the surrender of the Hero of the Nile to the wife of 
the British Ambassador. He outwits Villeneuve, 
to be himself outwitted by Frail Emma of Edgeware 
Row 251 

14. Revolution spreads from France to Italy, and Nelson 

becomes anxious for the personal safety of the King 
and Queen. Emma assists him in persuading them 
to flight. They set sail for Palermo in the midst of a 
great storm, during which one of the royal children 
expires in Emma's arms. Her courage and capacity 
arouse Nelson to enthusiasm and rivet his chains 
forever ........ 285 

15. The Hamiltons, with Nelson in their train, make a 

triumphant progress through the capitals of Europe, 
but on arriving in England are cold-shouldered by 
the Court. Lady Nelson becomes a factor in the 
situation and further estranges her husband by her 
conduct to Emma. The pressing attentions of the 
Prince of Wales excite the jealousy of the Admiral, 
but the birth of Horatia is a signal for the renewal 
of his ardour. The purchase of a country house 
is decided upon, and a selection made of Merton 
in Surrey 313 

16. Clouds gather and the sky is overcast. The death of 

Sir William Hamilton is followed by Amodeo Gibil- 
manna's successful attempts to blackmail his widow. 
He has obtained possession of Lord Bristol's letters. 



Contents 



and threatens to show them to Nelson. Emma im- 
poverishes herself to meet his demands, and then 
enjoys a brief period of respite with Nelson at 
Merton. But the battle of Trafalgar ends her 
happiness, and henceforth all is gloom. Gibilmanna 
returns to the attack, and when Emma can no 
longer satisfy his cupidity, sells her correspondence 
to Lovewell, a publisher of the Barbican. Emma 
cannot face the gossip that ensues, and retires to 
Calais, where her troubles end .... 342 



LIST OF PLATES 



Emma. By George Romney 



Frontispiece 
Facing page 
32 



Lady Hamilton as Euphrosyne. By Romney 
Lady Hamilton as St. Cecilia. By Romney 
The Spinstress. By Romney .... 
Lady Hamilton in a White Hood. By Romney . 
Lady Hamilton as Cassandra. By Romney 
Lady Hamilton : The Nun. By Romney 
Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante. By Sir Joshua 
Reynolds ....... 



80 
148 
192 
240 
304 

352 



NELSON'S LEGACY 



CHAPTER I 

Introduces Henry Gadogan and relates the events that led to 
his strange situation at Great Nesse. 

IT happens frequently in the case of persons 
who rise to eminence, that the envy of those 
whom they defeat in the struggle for Fame seeks 
to belittle their origin, and discredit their breeding, 
failing to perceive by how much the more the 
disgrace attaching to their own failure is thereby 
increased. It happened no otherwise in the case 
of the incomparable beauty whose adventures it 
is attempted to trace in the following sheets. And 
since legitimate birth into a family of ancient 
lineage and fine tradition is a valuable possession 
for anyone, even though the marriage that has 
so resulted be not one of social equality in the 
contracting parties, I purpose to set forth at the 
outset the events which led to the introduction 
of a future ambassadress into the world in 
circumstances so humble as those belonging 



2 Nelson's Legacy 

to the smithy in the remote village of Great 
Nesse. 

The father, then, of that Emma whom the 
vicissitudes of fortune conducted to the nuptial 
bed of Sir William Hamilton, His Britannic 
Majesty's Ambassador to the Court of Naples, 
whose beauty lives through the unrivalled art of 
Mr. Romney, and whose wanton charm captured 
the heart, and made happy the last years of the 
Hero of the Nile, the victor at Trafalgar, immortal 
Nelson, — the father of this remarkable woman 
was Mr. Henry Cadogan, nephew and heir to Mr. 
George Cadogan, a gentleman of small estate, but 
not so small importance, in the village of Ha warden, 
which lies about six miles west of the city of 
Chester. His house was the next largest to Broad- 
lane Hall, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, 
of whom we shall hear more as this history pro- 
gresses. It lay on the bank of one of the three 
brooks that fed the iron foundry and the boring 
mill, but away from the smoke of the one and 
the noise of the other. 

Here, in a house already old, set in an ordered 
garden, the leaden statues and stone sun-dial 
diversifying the dipt yews and formal flower-beds, 
lived Mr. George Cadogan, a scholarly man, of 
refined and fastidious tastes. And here, being a 
bachelor, he installed, as mistress of his establish- 



Nelson's Legacy 3 

ment, the widow of his deceased brother, with 
her only son, to whom, in course of time, he 
purposed to bequeath all his worldly goods. 

Mrs. Cadogan did not long survive her husband. 
She died before her little Henry's tottering baby 
feet had learnt to stand firm, but not before she 
had directed them on the right path and shown 
him a light by which to steer his wavering course. 
He knew, already before the death of his mother, 
that he must not hurt other people, and that he 
must be gentle as she was gentle. So much 
of the rules of conduct she inculcated in him. 
Afterwards he strove to interpret them in action, 
imperfectly perhaps, even incorrectly. But Provi- 
dence having removed her before she had carried 
his education farther, he was left to the care 
and tutelage of a man who, never having known 
the joys of fatherhood, lacked, and was unable 
to acquire, that sympathetic understanding of the 
development of youthful character which is one 
of fatherhood's natural attributes. 

Mr. George Cadogan was, nevertheless, one of 
the worthiest of his sex, and if the enunciation of 
abstract principles had been sufficient to form an 
entirely virtuous character, his nephew could not 
have been committed to a more desirable pre- 
ceptor. Henry was an obedient pupil, somewhat 
unchildlike, and apt to melancholy. In truth. 



4 Nelson's Legacy 

he felt a mother-want about the world, and 
groped after it silently ; giving but an inatten- 
tive ear to the apothegmata of a long-deceased 
Roman Emperor, or the moral conclusions arrived 
at after repentance by an uninspired Bishop of 
Hippo. 

Henry Cadogan perhaps deemed Marcus Aure- 
lius but a dull dog, and the holy Augustine's career 
interesting only up to the point when he sat 
under the fig-tree in the garden at Milan. Having 
read the rest as an academic exercise with his 
estimable uncle, he would dismiss the whole story, 
with its valuable lessons, from his mind, and go 
forth into the garden, or into the country beyond, 
to employ his leisure hours in his own way, making 
sketches of such objects as pleased his growing 
sense of beauty, for he was ever zealous with his 
pencil, or attempting to express in verse some 
of the vague thoughts and emotions which over- 
charged the heart of a youth whose disposition 
was naturally romantic. To such of these as he 
ventured to submit to his uncle's eye, the older 
man gave a kindly and a tolerant attention. Mr. 
George Cadogan took pleasure in his nephew's 
society, and encouraged him in his poetical exer- 
cises, regarding them, however, only as essays in 
one department of literature, and not as the first 
immature expression of a nature that might crave 



Nelson's Legacy 5 

and exact more substantial satisfaction in the 
days to come. 

Yet this, in truth, is what these romantic and 
heroic poems presaged. And as their author passed 
from childhood to adolescence, and felt the throb 
of the blood in his body, he ceased to be content 
with visionary Lesbias as objects of his amorous 
lyrics, and with imagined Evadnes and Cassanas 
as heroines of his romantic narratives. The 
mother- craving left him, and now he desired some 
inamorata, whom he might idealise, and who in 
return should inspire his genius to flights that 
should set him far up on the slopes of Parnassus, 
and at the end, perhaps, secure him a resting- 
place in the Temple of Fame. Desiring, he sought, 
and seeking, found. No society is so small but 
what it contains one maiden at least, endowed 
with charms of person, or witchery of sex, suffi- 
cient to qualify her to be the divinity of a youth 
in love with love. Hawarden certainly was not 
so small. And in Mary Kidd, the daughter of an 
honest labouring man, living in a little thatched 
cottage at the far end of the village, Henry Cadogan 
discovered a new outlet for the strange emotions 
that had hitherto found their expression only in 
verse. 

Of the first passages of their courtship there 
is no history. First love is ever shy and shuns 



6 Nelson's Legacy 

observation. But even if proven facts were the 
only material with which it is the historian's 
business to deal, I venture to suggest that there 
would still be no necessity for me to reconstitute 
what every reader can imagine for himself. This 
much, however, it is not impertinent to observe : 
that the natural shyness and pretty reluctance of 
young lovers to engage the attention of any save 
the single object of their mutual affection, are in 
themselves justification for that rigid fence of 
etiquette by which, in polite circles, young females 
are protected. The proprieties, in short, are the 
unwritten laws of behaviour which society, as 
the sum of its experience, has found to be neces- 
sary for the safeguarding of the morality of its 
inexperienced members, and in insisting upon their 
observance it shows rather a prudent knowledge 
of the temptations to which those members are 
liable to be exposed while their characters are 
still in process of formation, than mistrust of the 
ultimate efficacy of the virtuous principles which 
it simultaneously labours to instil. 

Unhappily, in the lower ranks of society, to 
which Mary Kidd belonged, no corresponding code 
of etiquette exists, and the temptations to which 
a young female is exposed can be resisted only 
by her own invincible religious sense or by the 
unceasing vigilance of her proper guardians. In 



Nelson's Legacy 7 

the case of Mary Kidd no vigilance could be exer- 
cised. Her family was for ever labouring with 
dire poverty. She herself had to assist in its 
maintenance by hard and unremitting labour in 
the fields. Life had meant naught but labour in 
the thatched cottage until Henry Cadogan saw 
timidity yet aspiration in a pair of blue eyes, and 
showed a counterpart of them in his own. There 
followed long interviews, sweet, because stolen, 
meetings in the moonlight, sighs and mutual pro- 
testations, quick pleading, and presently surrender. 
Then, one day, Mary had that to tell which sent 
Henry back to his uncle's house with face flushed 
by pride or shame, resolute to tell him what had 
happened, and thus test the practical value of 
his great store of abstract virtuous principles. 

Mr. George Cadogan heard his nephew's con- 
fession with steadily increasing astonishment. He 
was at first so disconcerted by such amazing intelli- 
gence that for the moment he even forgot the 
habitual Latinity of his diction, and the hitherto 
invincible courtesy of his manner. He took a pinch 
of snuff before he spoke, but even that failed 
completely and immediately to restore his calm. 

* You've gotten the wench with child ! ' he 
exclaimed, at the end of the long narrative, inter- 
spersed with rhapsodies, and punctuated by sighs, 
which his nephew inflicted upon him. Then 



8 Nelson's Legacy 

there was another pause, and another pinch of 

snuff. ' It is indeed a painful circumstance, a 

most lamentable occurrence. I trusted I had 

implanted in you the seeds of virtue.' 

' Virtuous and vicious every man must be, 
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree,' 

quoted Henry respectfully. 

Mr. Cadogan was somewhat mollified by the 
response, which had the literary flavour and was 
therefore to his taste. 

' True, true,' he answered. ' Most true. 'Twas 

the trollop herself that led you to it, no doubt. 

Yet if the responsibiHty be truly yours, you must 

e'en shoulder it. What does Mr. Samuel Prior say ? 

' Amongst all honest Christian people 
Whoe'er breaks limbs maintains the cripple.' 

He would not be outdone in quotation by his 
nephew. ' And who is the wench ? ' 

' Mary Kidd.' 

' Ah ! Comely ? 

Henry indulged in the exaggeration incidental 
to his state. And his uncle heard him with 
patience, almost with complaisance, relating an 
incident of his own youth, not, however, with- 
out shaking his head, and sighing, and having 
recourse to his snuff-box. But Henry could see 
he was secretly not ill-pleased to recall the 
story, and remind himself that, although a 



Nelson's Legacy 9 

scholar and a recluse, he was also a man of the 
world. 

The trouble between them only arose when 
Mr. Cadogan suggested that ten guineas should 
be raised from Henry's small patrimony and given 
to the companion of his vice on condition that 
she left the neighbourhood. It was then Henry 
showed the result of his mother's early teaching. 
He protested that Mary loved him, and that he 
would not desert her. He vowed that he would 
make an honest woman of her, cover her frailty 
with a marriage ring. . . . 

* Marry ! marry, forsooth ! Marry the strum- 
pet I ' Quite a flush came into the thin old cheeks 
and the hand that held the snuff-box shook. 
' Have you taken leave of your senses ? Where 
do you propose to live, and upon what do you 
propose to maintain a wife ? ' Mr. Cadogan 
strove after dignity and composure, but both 
eluded him. When Henry urged his point with 
persistence his exasperated uncle resorted to 
dark threats of ' spinning-houses for waistcoateers, 
and pounds for loose puppies.' He threatened to 
make use of his commission of the peace to bring 
the pair of them to heel, uttering a denunciation 
of all loose women, including Mary by name in a 
manner that roused all the mistaken chivalry and 
impotent anger of the boy. For, in truth, at this 



10 Nelson's Legacy 

time Henry was little more than a boy. And 
Mr. Cadogan pursued the subject with further 
quotation, more snuff-taking, and a growing calm. 
He held the power of the purse, and other powers, 
was bitter in argument, and now that his self- 
possession had returned could play rapier-like with 
sharp speech. His words bit, and the wounds 
bled, letting out self-esteem and courage. Henry 
became as a whipped child before him ; he could 
have wept in his rage and revolt, and found 
himself with no word or argument left. But there 
was heat in his cheeks, and in his heart, and a 
great blaze of pity and tenderness for the maid 
who had given him in love that which his uncle 
coarsened and brutalised in argument. 

He was dismissed from Mr. Cadogan's presence 
presently, with contemptuous coldness, and a 
parting adjuration in the Latin tongue. 

He had not regained his spirit when Mary 
herself was in his arms. She had waited for him 
in the orchard, beside two nymphs who guarded a 
stone fountain where clear spring water gushed 
from the mouth of an infant Triton. Underneath 
the apple blossom, and the young spring green, 
were tearful eyes, and tremulous lips that yielded 
as they trembled, lips cold with fear, and hot with 
love. What could Mr. Cadogan ever have known 
of love ? His story was but of lust. 



Nelson's Legacy n 

Henry heard the piteous appeal not to abandon 
whom he had betrayed ; and it was not in him 
to hear it unmoved. Incoherent murmurings of 
love proved more potent than logical statements 
of worldly facts. He vowed fidelity as the shadows 
fell and the evening closed about them, when love 
held out its wanton charms, and persuaded them 
that which is beautiful and natural is also surely 
right. The night guarded their secrets. 

Next day, and on many succeeding days, the 
struggle between uncle and nephew was renewed. 
Now it took a literary, and again an academic 
form. Mr. Cadogan cited authorities, and Henry 
refuted them. Mr. Cadogan argued, and Henry 
demurred. In the course of this conflict of will 
and reason the weakness of the lad's character, 
which was responsible for the injury he had done 
the girl, manifested itself in obstinacy to persist in 
what his uncle described as the folly of his inten- 
tions with regard to her. And then the last word 
was spoken ; the ultimatum given out. Henry 
could pay the girl off generously, for money, if 
not plentiful, was not wanting ; or he could carry 
his Quixotism to the end, and marry her. In that 
case he could go where he pleased, and ' take his 
wanton' with him. But go he must. And if he 
went, he went for ever. 

It was the old story. Once more youth was 



12 Nelson's Legacy 

given the choice between the world and love, 
and once more youth counted the world well lost 
for love. 

As almost any girl in a like situation would 
have done, Mary Kidd accepted the sacrifice 
made on the altar of her frailty. She was 
more mature than her boy-lover, and was the 
counsellor in much that followed. It was on her 
advice that Henry Cadogan took another name, 
both in order to avoid awkward questions, and 
to elude his uncle's threatened reprisals. In the 
name of Henry Lyon he was married to Mary 
Kidd, by the Rev. C. Gardener, curate, in the 
parish church of Neston. With a pathetic pre- 
tence of equaUty suggested by his native chivalrous- 
ness — or perhaps it was with an as pathetic desire 
to make discovery still more difficult — Henry 
signed the register, as Mary did, with a mark. 
Thenceforward he would have no use for scholar- 
ship. 

But he had a wife, and soon would have a 
child, and must redeem the hostages he had given 
to fortune. Dame Fortune gave him small choice 
as to the way in which he should do so. For fifty 
years John Hales had been blacksmith at Great 
Nesse, and now the old man was failing, and 
needed help. Henry Lyon bound himself appren- 
tice to him, in hopes to learn the trade. But 



Nelson's Legacy 13 

after four months John Hales died, leaving Henry's 
education incomplete. All the money he had, 
independently of his uncle — it represented his 
mother's little savings — the unfortunate young 
man invested in the goodwill and stock-in-trade 
of the forge. Thus it came about that he who so 
short a time before was Henry Cadogan, gentleman, 
and heir to a respectable estate, was now become 
Henry Lyon, smith, of Nesse. 

It would have been difficult for him to have 
picked a trade for which he had less aptitude. 
He was disqualified for it by something more than 
the tenderness with which he had been nurtured 
in the solitude of his uncle's house. The rich 
luxuriance of his red-gold hair, the transparence 
of his temples, showing blue tracery of veins, the 
moist redness of his mouth, shaped like a Cupid's 
bow, the soft roundness of his white and slender 
arms, the hectic ebb and flow of colour in his 
face — these were so many outward signs of a 
consumption that was no less his inheritance 
than the little savings. He did not know this 
yet, but each day left him more exhausted by 
the unaccustomed toil, each day found him less 
equal to the demands it made upon him. Only 
the pride that comes of race sustained him in the 
losing battle. 

The end came suddenly. 



14 Nelson's Legacy 

Old Sir Thomas Mostyn, Squire of the Parish, 
rode to the forge to have his mare shod, and 
Henry Lyon, though wearied more than ordin- 
arily, dared not disappoint so valuable a cus- 
tomer. Sir Thomas sat on the wooden bench 
that was all the furniture the forge afforded, and 
watched the young smith at work, noting the 
effort needed to swing the heavy hammer, and the 
uncertainty of its fall upon the metal. He grew 
impatient of such incompetence. 

' Plague on it,' he said testily. ' You fiddle 
about with a hammer like any fool of a woman. 
Let it swing free, man, let it swing free.' 

Henry made no answer but redoubled his 
efforts. The squire watched him as he finished 
beating out the iron, heating and shaping it, then, 
stooping down to take the mare's hoof upon his 
apron, fitted and fastened the shoe. The sweat 
beaded on Henry's forehead and trickled down 
into his eyes ; he breathed with difficulty. Squire 
Mostyn noted the hairless whiteness of the exposed 
chest, and the womanly slimness of the arms, bare 
to above the elbow. 

'You're no smith,' exclaimed Sir Thomas, 'and 
not even John Hales could have made 'ee one. 
The work's too hard for you.' 

' There are worse things than hard work,' 
Henry answered breathlessly. 



Nelson^s Legacy 15 

' Want of it, for one,' put in the squire, dryly. 
* Very true, very true. But you'd have no need 
to be afraid of that if you'd buckle to and master 
your trade. There's not another forge within 
twenty miles, and would not be, if you learn to 
give satisfaction to your customers.' 

Henry was touched both by the encouragement 
and the warning. He knew he must struggle on, 
at least until after his child was born. Yet but a 
boy himself, that which was coming to him would 
need all his strength and courage. 

He rose and straightened himself painfully, 
answering respectfully. Then he led the newly 
shod mare to the ghost stone outside, which the 
squire, an old man now, was perforce obliged to 
use as a mounting block. The squire was molli- 
fied by his attitude, perhaps moved by his appear- 
ance, and as he settled himself in the saddle, he 
said, * A man ought to be fitted for his business.' 
He gathered the reins in his hands. ' Belike 
smithing is not yours. Why don't 'ee turn barber, 
man, or schoolmaster, or both ? You could attend 
to both sides of the children's heads then, inside 
and outside ; and 'twould be an easier job to 
knock learning into them, thick though they be, 
than 'tis to beat out horseshoes. Give the matter 
your thought, young man ; and if you're needing 
help, come up to the house. . . .' 



i6 Nelson's Legacy 

He tossed the smith a crown for his labour, 
and rode off, unaware of the desperation smoulder- 
ing behind him. The air of patronage and the 
scarcely veiled scorn, had flicked Henry Lyon on 
the raw. He would be neither barber nor school- 
master. He was a scholar and a gentleman. . . . 
When Sir Thomas had jogged away out of sight 
he flung the crown upon the bench. And yet he 
could not but give the matter thought, as he had 
been enjoined. 

Leaning against the door of the forge, he 
rested his eyes on the wide estuary of the Dee, 
and on the Welsh hills, showing purple in the 
distance. It was a beautiful place to which his 
folly, or his virtue, had brought him, a peaceful 
and prosperous place. But the fairest prospect is 
powerless to soothe the heart that is not at rest; 
and Henry Lyon knew already that he was the 
victim of irremediable discontent. Marcus Aurelius 
and all the philosophers were proven fools, and 
their maxims foolishness. How often had he 
repeated to himself the adage, Leve jit quod bene 
fertur onus, only to convince himself of its 
falseness. 

In the first ardour of his emancipation from his 
state of pupilage he had thought to prove his 
independence by making a living by his hands, 
work was to have been the panacea for all his 



Nelson's Legacy 17 

troubles. But instead of curing the malady, it 
was killing the patient. For already, this after- 
noon, the lad knew that he had come almost to 
the end of his powers of endurance. He did not 
regret his courtship or marriage — by it he had 
proved his spirit, and established his manhood's 
estate. But all at once he was nauseated by the 
conditions into which they had brought him ; by 
the dirt and the sweat of labour ; by the foetid 
atmosphere of the cottage which he shared with 
Mary, and which pleased her so greatly ; by the 
coarseness of his meat, and the spiritual loneliness 
of his days. The squire had brought it all home 
to him ; he was removed from his equals in educa- 
tion and politeness. Man cannot live by bread 
alone, and feeding on sacrifice is less than bread. 

Henry could work no more that day, and anon, 
doffing his leathern apron, washing the worst of 
the dirt from his hands and face, and closing the 
smithy door, he betook him to the old quay fields, 
there to lie for awhile on the warm bosom of 
earth, to watch from afar the slow approach of 
the Irish packet, to see the sails catch the breeze, 
and to dream, futilely, that some day he too might 
sail to a new haven, where there would be peace, 
the wind and sky for sweet company, and rest in 
sight. 

In the cottage Mary waited the return of her 



i8 Nelson's Legacy 

husband, at first with patience, then with growing 
anxiety. When the night fell, and still he did 
not come, anxiety gave place to panic, and she 
sought her neighbour's aid. Gaffer Dowling, from 
next door, and Mary Lyon, swinging their lanterns, 
uncertain where to look, sallied forth into the cold 
grey of the spring night. The gaffer was bent 
and old, but Mary bore herself erect, albeit there 
was fear at the back of her mind. She was truly 
of stouter heart, and of more judgment, than 
her husband, and if more time had been given 
her, she might well have made a man of him. 
But his weakness had won upon her, so that now 
she loved her husband as she had never loved 
her lover. She knew that he was delicate in 
health, and she guessed too, as wives will, that 
he was unhappy in his spirit. He had striven to 
keep it from her, but she knew. Women are fain 
to know such things. 

Now she and the old gaffer went first to the 
empty forge, and then to the village inn, where 
they had tidings that the young blacksmith had 
been seen to leave the forge, and to go toward 
the quay, many hours ago. Other villagers joined 
them, with more swinging lamps, and there was 
talk of murder and highwaymen, and much rough 
sympathy and foreboding. 

And, indeed, when they found Henry, coming 



Nelson's Legacy 19 

upon him suddenly, and with many an exclama- 
tion and loud lament, it looked as if a murder 
had been wrought. For he lay upon his back, and 
there were patches upon his clothes, and on the 
ground about him, darker than the night. The 
sky might have been his pall, so still he lay, and 
the murmur of the sea beneath might have been 
his dirge. There were no stars, and no moon ; 
truly the bracken might have hid an assailant. 
But Mary, who was soon beside him, on her knees, 
pillowing his head on her breast, crying to him, 
saw that it was no murder. 

' I went to sleep, and woke coughing. My 
mouth was full of blood. ... it is coming again ! 
Mary . . .' 

They carried him back to the cottage pre- 
sently, and it seemed he would have died before 
they brought him there, so great and so constant 
was the flow of blood from his mouth. They 
halted him at the inn, and tried the sovereign 
remedy, but without avail. The village barber, 
who was also the apothecary, was in the bar par- 
lour, and he let blood from his arm to stay the 
blood from his lungs. For awhile the treatment 
seemed to avail. It was a living man they brought 
home before the morning, to linger a few weeks 
under his Mary's tender nursing. Whatever fault 
may have been hers in the beginning, she strove 



20 Nelson's Legacy 

to atone for it now, tending him night and day, 
offering to send for his uncle, or go to Hawarden 
herself to entreat forgiveness. For it was that 
that weighed on the sufferer, a sense of ingratitude, 
and a great home-sickness. But he could not 
make up his mind to let her leave him. It was 
always of her situation, and never of his own that 
he murmured in his last days. He was full of 
concern for her and her coming child. But for 
himself, it seemed that death would bring him ease, 
both of mind and body ; his fretting conscience 
saw no other way. He knew now that for manual 
labour he was unfit, and he had forfeited his right 
to his uncle's affection and estate. Mary was his 
wife, and would be the mother of his child, but 
it was not true love he felt for her. The burden 
of concealing from her that he was aware he had 
made a mistake was a burden he would lay down 
gladly. 

Henry Cadogan lived to see his daughter. With 
eyes fast glazing in death, he gazed upon her 
lovely face, a replica in miniature of his own, and 
with that strange gift of vision of the future which 
Providence so often vouchsafes to dying men, he 
appeared to have some foreknowledge of her 
destiny. He uttered a broken blessing and 
entreaty. 

' Oh, Mary,' he cried to the weeping woman, 



Nelson's Legacy 21 

' my Mary, let not her weakness, nor the weakness 
she inherits from her unhappy father, deprive 
her of maternal love. Cherish her, I beseech you ; 
cherish her as you cherish my memory, and love 
her whatever displeasure she may cause you. . . .' 
And how well and truly she obeyed him the 
pages of the following history will duly testify. 
She was a woman of the people, and the child 
she bore was a gentleman's child. He had sacri- 
ficed much to her honour, and she too must make 
sacrifices ; and, as will be seen, she did not spare 
them. The little Emma, so early fatherless, was 
ever surrounded with the love and devotion of 
the best of mothers. Her low estate notwith- 
standing, Mary Kidd had in truth a noble spirit. 



CHAPTER II 

Little Emma Is carried to Hawarden and repudiated by Mr. 
George Cadogan ; welcomed by her grandmother, she is 
sent to school, where she meets her first suitor ; and, worldly 
prudence dictating, she accepts her first engagement on 
life's stage. 

A TENDER heart can scarce bear to contem- 
-^~^ plate the desolate plight in which a young 
woman finds herself when prematurely bereft of 
the husband of her girlhood, and the father of her 
new-born babe. Even Pity is fain to steal away 
from that dark chamber where the widow Lyon 
kneeled and mourned her dead. Yet was it not a 
manifestation of Pity from Him who knows the 
human heart that cajoled the mourner from the 
bier whereon her husband lay to the cradle where 
her infant woke, and cried, and made its new 
demand ? 

This was the substance of the second act in 
the tragic comedy of Life which the great drama- 
tist, Fate, provided for Mary Lyon. And were 
it Mary Lyon instead of her babe with whose 
person and history this narrative is concerned, an 
author would be remiss in discharging the obliga- 
tions imposed upon him by his art, who failed to 



Nelson's Legacy 23 

point the morals that are to be derived from so 
affecting a situation. It is the daughter, however, 
and not the widowed mother, who is to be the 
heroine of this chronicle, and therefore it is un- 
necessary to pause to depict the anguish brought 
by a loss of which she was too young to be aware. 
Only what is pertinent to herself, shall be recorded, 
and in respect of Henry Lyon's death all that has 
to be told therefore is how it affected the worldly 
position of the child whom he had begotten. 

All the money Henry possessed had been sunk 
in the purchase of the forge, an investment than 
which nothing could have proved more completely 
the lack of prudence in worldly matters, with which 
his uncle, Mr. George Cadogan, had been wont to 
charge him. For, as it had provided him with an 
occupation for which he was entirely unfitted, and 
subjected him to an exertion to which he was so 
unused that it undoubtedly hastened his end, so 
now it represented a business which his widow 
could not carry on, and which, had she been un- 
able to dispose of it, would have been as completely 
useless in supporting her as any of the lyrical poems 
which he had been in the habit of addressing to 
her in their ante-nuptial days. 

It was the lady of that Sir Thomas Mostyn, 
who had chafed at the smith's lack of craftsman- 
ship, who now came to the assistance of his 



24 Nelson's Legacy 

widow. Gaffer Dowling, Mary's neighbour, had a 
nephew, a smith who had learned his trade in 
Chester, and was wilhng to avail himself of an 
opportunity to practise it in his native village. 
Through the good offices of my Lady Mostyn, 
negotiations were entered into between Thomas 
Dowling and Mary Lyon, and brought to a happy 
conclusion, whereby young Dowling covenanted to 
take the forge upon lease, paying to Mary Lyon 
a rental of eight shillings a week. The plan proved 
perfectly agreeable to all the parties. Dowling, 
an able-bodied and industrious man, restored the 
business to the prosperity it had known in the 
days of old John Hales, and Mary found the 
income accruing to her amply sufficient for her 
modest needs. Both she and her babe throve 
upon it. 

Common consent consented for once with 
maternal pride, and the little ' Emy, daughter of 
Henry Lyon of Nesse, by Mary his wife,' was 
agreed on all sides to be the most beautiful babe 
in the three villages. The sympathy that at first 
had been the young widow's chief solace grew 
to be less necessary as she found happiness 
in her child. Her love for her young husband 
was merged in an affection both stronger and 
more sacred when his blue eyes smiled on her from 
the infant's face, and the red-gold curls grew 



Nelson's Legacy 25 

under her caressing hand. Mary forgot to be un- 
happy when the babe crowed and kicked, forgot 
to grieve for the rose, as she watched the bud 
unfolding beneath her care. She set too much 
store by it, the neighbours said, and bid fair to 
spoil the child to whom she devoted every minute 
of her time. But Mary paid no heed to them. 
It was a tyranny to which she was the willing 
subject, and it was a sweet picture of innocence 
and domestic happiness that, all unconsciously, 
she formed when playing with her child. 

Yet, such is the ironical humour of Fate, Mary's 
very happiness in her new condition was the cause 
of her soon being driven from the place where 
she had found it. Young, lovely, and already 
relying upon him for her maintenance, she ap- 
peared to Thomas Bowling in every respect a 
desirable helpmeet. Affection followed where self- 
interest led the way, and affection developed into 
a truly passionate desire. But Mary had no love, 
or even affection, to give. That of her heart 
which lay not in her Henry's grave was centred 
on the child with which he had so grandly dowered 
her. She repulsed Thomas Bowling's advances, 
and told him plainly she thought it showed his 
ill-breeding to press them upon her. Yet she 
should have known, none better, that it is idle 
to attempt to counter love's assaults with argu- 



26 Nelson's Legacy 

ment. To Thomas Dowling it seemed wholly 
fitting that Mary Lyon should take as her second 
husband a man who was also a smith, and already 
her tenant. She might scorn his advances, and 
taunt him with his ill-breeding, but in truth in 
that respect she was no better than himself. Only 
Mary knew, although she could not explain, that 
a man is not a blacksmith merely because he 
chances to work at a forge. Henry Lyon was a 
gentleman, and intimate association with him had 
made intimate association with anyone his social 
and intellectual inferior for ever impossible to her. 
Great love can hardly condescend from its ideal, 
and it was great love that Mary had lavished upon 
her husband, whom she had idolised in life, and, 
dead, idealised. 

So she persisted in her denial of all that Dowling 
sought, and when he pursued her with ever-growing 
pertinacity she determined to find safety in flight. 
Her thoughts turned involuntarily, and often, to 
Hawarden, and now to Mr. George Cadogan. She 
would ask his protection for herself and for her 
child. It was her right and her privilege to appeal 
to its father's relatives for the child's maintenance, 
and though he might be harsh to herself, the fond 
mother deemed it impossible that any man with 
a heart in his breast could resist the appeal of her 
child's beauty and innocent helplessness. 



Nelson's Legacy 27 

It was at the end of a long day's journey that 
Mary found herself once more in Hawarden. With- 
out pressing forward to pay her duty to her 
mother, who lived at the extreme end of the village, 
she made her way direct to that other dwelling 
beneath whose roof her beloved had grown to 
man's estate. If some tears suffused her eyes as 
she tenderly recalled her happy conversations with 
him the pledge of whose affection she now pressed 
to her bosom, no lack of courage made her feet 
falter. Widowhood lent her dignity, motherhood 
gave her confidence. She walked up to the 
thatched porch of the old house, by the open 
door of which a heavy iron bell depended. But 
while she was in the very act to pull it, Mr. George 
Cadogan, in person, stood before her. He had a 
large pair of scissors in hand, and was about to 
engage in the congenial task of shearing a rose- 
bush. He peered at Mary through his horned 
glasses, without recognition, although with some 
appreciation of her comeliness, and as Mary waited 
for him to address her, she observed that he looked 
older and more frail than the passage of so few 
years since she had last seen him would seem to 
warrant. Time, though inexorable, is not cruel ; 
it is Care that graves the deepest lines upon the 
human countenance, and corrodes the frame. 

She dropped him a curtsey : ' An' it please 



28 Nelson's Legacy 

you, sir,' she began, ' I am Mary Lyon that was 
Mary Kidd.' 

' Ay,' he said, ' ay ? ' His hearing was a little 
dull. ' Mary Lyon, that was Mary Kidd,' he 
repeated with the usual recourse to his snuff-box. 
' And what may you be wanting of me ? Speak 
freely, girl, speak freely. 'Tis a burden you 
carry.' She hugged the burden closer. ' What 
does our poet say ? 

' To mortal man great loads allotted be, 
But of all packs, no pack like poverty. 

You seek relief ? ' 

The hand that restored the snuff-box to the 
pocket, lingered there to draw forth a netted 
purse, somewhat slenderly furnished : 

' In faith and hope the world will disagree, 
Of all Mankind's concern is Charity,' 

he quoted, not without sententiousness. ' Here 
is a florin for you ; now go your way in peace, 
wench.' For still she lingered, the coin in her 
hand. ' I must to my roses ; the day grows 
late. . . .' 

She curtseyed again : ' You are good, sir, and 
most truly kind. But if it please you . . .' and 
again she repeated, ' I am Mary Kidd." 

The name had brought nothing to his mind. 
Of Kidds there were not a few in the district. 



Nelson's Legacy 29 

sailors and labourers for the most part, all of the 
humblest station. 

But some dawn of knowledge must then have 
been his, for into the thin old cheeks came a 
reddening and his head shook a little, as if from 
palsy. Could this be the trull for whose sake his 
ward had defied and shaken off his authority, 
with incredible ingratitude treated as naught the 
affection and solicitude of an uncle who had 
been father and mother in one, and thrown 
away all the fair prospects of inheritance to an 
honourable position in the country ? Was this 
the trollop through whom he had lost the young 
and animated companion of his solitude, and 
through whom his old age was lonely ? And had 
she the hardihood and boldness to attack him 
here ? All the bitterness and anger that had 
been pent up within his breast for so long, 
rushed to his lips in an eruption as dreadful as 
that which ^tna belches forth when Typhon 
struggles beneath it in a paroxysm of impotent 
rage. 

' You . . . you trull, the strumpet, that ruined 
my nephew ! ' he stammered. ' Begone, begone, 
or I'll set the dogs on you, you baggage. . . .' 
All his philosophy had left him, all his reticence 
and dignity ; he presented only the spectacle of a 
palsied old man in an impotent rage. ' Begone, 



30 Nelson's Legacy 

before I do you an injury. I'll have you in the 
pound by the heel, I'll have no loose women in 
Ha warden. . . .' 

' I'm an honest woman, and your nephew's 
widow,' she faltered out, alarmed nevertheless by 
his demeanour. 

' You're a witch, you're a . . . ' He used 
another word with which I dare not disfigure my 
page. ' An honest woman, forsooth ! A pretty 
honesty, I warrant. You played upon the simple- 
ness of a love-sick boy, who, to give him his due, 
was more fool than knave, forcing him into the 
marriage which led to his death.' And at the 
thought of what had come to the lad, and his 
untimely end, emotion overcame him, and he 
stayed a moment in his ungoverned speech. ' Poor 
lad I poor lad ! ' he murmured. ' A blacksmith's 
forge, a blacksmith ! But perhaps I was over- 
harsh with him. . . .' Then he recalled her 
presence again. ' As for you, I wish to Heaven 
I had made out a mittimus to Bridewell, where you 
might have cooled your blood what time the lad 
came to his senses. You married him, and then 
you killed him. Ay, it was through you the boy 
died. And now, with no husband, and none of 
the fortune for which you plotted, you have the 
impudence to come to me. I'll have nought to 
do with you, nor yet with the child. How do I 



Nelson's Legacy 31 

even know it's his, or with what Dick, Tom and 
Harry you have had commerce ? ' 

' God knows, sir, I was a true wife to him, and 
had commerce with none but my Henry before or 
after we were wed. Nor ever will, an' it please 
you, seeing what came of it. . . .' But Mr. 
Cadogan, philosopher and scholar though he was, 
was beyond listening to reason, more particularly 
when it spoke to him from the lips of his nephew's 
despised wife. 

' 'Twas a clever thing you thought you were 
doing when you laid your bastard at my poor 
boy's door, and snared him into a clandestine 
marriage. And it's a pretty pass to which you 
have brought yourself. But it's Heaven's judg- 
ment on you, and I'll not interfere. Begone, I 
say.' 

She confronted him with unfailing courage, 
though her limbs were tottering, and for the child's 
sake she strove once more to melt his wrath. 
But he drowned each faltering word of hers in 
a new torrent of passionate invective, until in very 
hopelessness she was compelled to turn and leave 
him. In truth, he drove her from his door, but 
when at last she passed from his view, neither his 
roses nor his philosophy availed him ; he was 
conscious only of his bereavement, and of the 
vanity of man's hopes. 



32 Nelson's Legacy 

Mary went down the long street hugging her 
living burden yet closer to her bosom. She held 
her head high, conscious of her own integrity, but 
the colour burned in her cheeks and her eyes were 
dry and brilliant. The harsh words hammered 
on her confused brain, and now she was conscious 
of a great fatigue. She came at last to her mother's 
cottage. Motherhood meant so much more to her 
now than it had when, nearly three years ago, she 
had fled from its protection. But memory, in- 
stinct, hope, told her that here succour awaited 
her. And hope this time told no false, or flattering 
tale. Mrs. Kidd, old in her forty-seventh year, 
weighted with cares and poverty, was stooping 
among her cabbages, and for a moment failed to 
note the suppliant fumbling at the latch of her 
little gate. Then she looked up and saw. Irreso- 
lute, but only to believe so great a happiness, she 
stood silent for a moment. ' I've come home,' 
Mary faltered. ' I've come home,' . . . she held 
out her baby, ' with my burden.' The tears 
streamed down her face. ' Mother, mother, you'll 
not turn me from your door ? ' 

For answer there were open arms, and croon- 
ing words of love for exhausted mother and hungry 
babe. There were no questions, and no reproaches, 
it was enough that Mary had come home again; 
more than enough, a great joy, an overwhelming 







LADY HAMILTOX AS EUPHR08YNB 

FROM THE PAINTING BY ROMNEY, IN THE POSSESSION 
OF G. HARLAND PECK, ESQ. 



Nelson's Legacy 33 

mercy. She could not make too much of the pair 
of them. For Mrs. Kidd, the labouring woman, 
no less than the philosopher in his garden, had 
missed the young life about her. Mary's welcome 
here lacked nothing in warmth ; and gradually her 
grief was assuaged and her courage to face life 
again, restored. 

Nevertheless the situation of which our Emma's 
dawning consciousness became aware, and which 
furnished her with her earliest memories, was one of 
bitter, grinding poverty. The cottage at Hawarden 
was even smaller than the one at Great Nesse, 
containing only two bedrooms under a thatched 
roof, and downstairs a single living-room. A patch 
of garden grew the potatoes which often formed 
the only food for the family, and although Mrs. 
Kidd gladly shared her all with daughter and 
granddaughter, that all amounted to little more 
than six shillings a week. Hunger was familiar 
in the little cottage. Nevertheless the wolf 
starvation kept from the door, and this small 
family, females of three generations without one 
pair of manly arms to work for them, furnished 
a living proof that it is possible to be healthy 
and hungry at one and the same time. 

Health, at any rate, was Emy Lyon's dowry 
in her babyhood, and with it a double portion of 
the beauty that is health's proper attribute. 



34 Nelson's Legacy 

Already in her tenth summer, her hair was a 
miracle of length and thickness. Her skin was 
almost transparently fair, eyes lustrous with 
dancing blue, lips red and laughing, wondrously 
shaped. The large cotton bonnets in which she 
went to and fro to school, enhanced these beauties 
by the modesty with which they half concealed 
them. Her gentle parentage gave her a refine- 
ment which the other village children did not 
possess, and affected both her mother and her 
grandmother with a sense that hers was a higher 
nature than their own, to be more carefully nur- 
tured, and more tenderly controlled. Remark- 
able was her capacity for affection ; but with 
the warmth of heart and generosity of disposition 
that made the little creature adorable to all who 
knew her, she had a passionateness of temper, 
and a waywardness that were difficult to meet. 

Variety of life, and the distractions of gaiety, 
were hard to come by in so remote a village, but 
already the child's heart inclined to them, and 
of such excitements as were provided by the great 
cattle-fairs held every spring and autumn she 
took full advantage, sorely trying the loving dis- 
cipline of her natural guardians. There were rough 
men and boys about on these occasions, and 
maternal love was racked by anxiety ; it could 
not be wholly blind to the dangers lying in wait 



Nelson's Legacy 35 

for one so beautiful, but withal so fitful in mood, 
so emotional, and so captivating. Yet, if fear 
was latent in the mother's heart, pride and hope 
flourished there too, and these were not all un- 
happy days for Mary Lyon. 

And now there was woven into the pattern of 
the child's life a thread, in close context with 
which the weft of her own career was after- 
wards to be entangled and knit in complicated 
design. 

In the west corner of the churchyard at 
Hawarden stands the Grammar School, founded 
and endowed by good George Ledsham. Here the 
child was taught the first beginnings of that 
education which, later, she was at great pains to 
carry further ; and here she met the first of the 
opposite sex to pay her those attentions which, 
later, some of the greatest in the land vied in 
laying at her feet. 

Will Masters, like herself, was an only child, 
and his mother, too, was a widow. Will Masters 
singled Emy out from the others for his chosen 
companion, and soon between the two children a 
pretty and idyllic intercourse was established. 
He was her knight, championing her cause when 
other boys grew too rude and violent in their 
play, teasing, and being teased in turn by her, 
and in quieter moments weaving simple stories 



36 Nelson's Legacy 

of what they should do when they were grown 
up, and Emy had become his wife. Heaven, 
that allows the heads of little children to be filled 
with harmless fancies, knows that in this early 
sweethearting there was nothing that was not 
pure and innocent. And yet the place the boy 
won in the maid's affectionate heart was so secure 
that, later, she was to pay a bitter price to save 
him from distress. Even now this first courtship 
was destined to make a change in her situation. 

Mrs. Thomas, wife of the squire living at 
Broadlane Hall, found something ominous of dan- 
ger in this attraction of boy to girl and girl to 
boy. In her position of leading lady in the parish 
of Ha warden she was well qualified to judge of 
the difficulties Mary Lyon might find in safe- 
guarding the virtue and modesty of her daughter 
when she should come to marriageable age. Had 
not Mary Lyon's own mother found some diffi- 
culties not so long ago ? Mrs. Thomas and the 
schoolmaster held conference together. Already 
it was impossible to ignore the beauty of the 
little cottage girl. The schoolmaster and the Lady 
of the Manor combined in disapproving of the 
romping games and too early courtships that were 
so prevalent in the village. More than once evil 
had come of such games. At the Hall, under 
the discipline that prevailed in that well-ordered 



Nelson's Legacy 37 

establishment, impropriety was impossible, and 
danger kept at bay. So, Mary Lyon consenting, 
Mrs. Thomas took Emy, who now was thirteen 
years of age, into her service, to act as nurse-girl 
and maid to her own three children, and be taught 
to earn her living Christianly and virtuously under 
Mrs. Thomas's own supervision. 

On the face of it the arrangement appeared 
entirely good. For at home Emy's natural gaiety 
and the lightness of her nature, robbed reproof of 
all its force. Neither Mrs. Kidd nor Mary Lyon 
could find it in their heart to punish her as 
beseemed them when thoughtlessness carried her 
beyond the bounds of prudence. 

Emy's loving and lovable disposition, her im- 
petuous repentance and easy tears won her quick 
forgiveness. To her mother she was the living 
representation of romance and the joy of life. 
Mother and grandmother combined in her spoiling, 
and indeed they acknowledged it to each other. 
Already little Emy was almost beyond parental 
control, and Will Masters was a yet further com- 
plication. The household of Mrs. Thomas pre- 
sented a solution of all difficulties. There she 
would be well provided for, and placed out of 
reach of temptation. And if she were not happy, 
was not the cottage door always open to her ? 
To Broadlane Hall, then, Emy was duly conveyed, 



38 Nelson's Legacy 

on the understanding that she might visit her 
home every week, and that every week her mother 
and grandmother might come to see her at the 
Hall. 

Thus it came about that on her thirteenth 
birthday Emy made her first venture into the 
world, beginning, as many another great actress 
hath done, with the humble part of a serving- 
maid, to rise in after years to be the accepted 
queen of the theatre. 

But the little Emy was destined also to play 
her part, not in the stilted tragedies and comedies 
of the stage, but in the great drama of contem- 
porary history. 



CHAPTER III 

Master Will Masters creates a diversion at Broadlane Hall, and 
Mrs. Thomas decides that Emy must shine in some other 
sphere. 

T TAPPINESS dwells in ordered ways as surely 
J- A as doth security. Nay, it were apter to 
the fact to declare that Happiness is the offspring 
of Security, but for whose maternal labour and 
ensuing vigilance it could neither have its being nor 
endure. Yet such is the perverseness of human 
nature, it often finds in security naught but tedium, 
and would adventure happiness for variety, not 
knowing the value of its most valuable possession. 
Even of those of gentle disposition there are some 
who forfeit the satisfaction of quietude, disturb- 
ing the placid atmosphere by the admission of 
elements which the wisdom of their guardians 
deems it necessary to exclude. And this was the 
first misfortune of our heroine, who, in childish 
ignorance of all that it might entail, was a con- 
senting party to the intrusion of her old associa- 
tions into her new. 

For assuredly in that first year she found 
happiness at Broadlane Hall. It was her dispo- 

39 



40 Nelson's Legacy 

sition to be happy, and there was nothing in her 
new circumstance to war with her disposition. 
From the poverty of old Mrs. Kidd's cottage, 
where there was seldom meat enough to stay 
healthy hunger, where fuel was too scant to dis- 
pel the cold that rose from the flagged floor, she 
had come to the enjoyment of the creature 
comforts, the warmth and plenty of the spacious 
Hall. In a less conscious degree she was grateful 
for the sense of safety it afforded, for that very 
protection which it was the excellent Mrs. Thomas's 
object to secure her. She strove to requite kind- 
ness with good service, minding the children when 
she took them on expeditions in search of nuts 
or berries, playing with them decorously in the 
house or garden when they were not permitted to 
go further abroad, listening soberly to the instruc- 
tion of her mistress, and accepting praise or 
rebuke in a becoming spirit. It seemed now as 
if a fair breeze filled the sails of her life's little 
barque, to waft it evenly to the haven of good 
fortune. But of a sudden and without premoni- 
tion, the breeze fell away, the sky altered, and a 
horrid tempest broke, driving the barque on an 
uncertain course into the open sea of perilous 
adventure. 

Within the limits of his not inconsiderable 
fortune Mr. Thomas gratified his wife's taste for 



Nelson's Legacy 41 

the Fine Arts and, in particular, for painting. His 
eldest daughter had already acquired some pro- 
ficiency in this pleasing accomplishment, and had 
made a portrait of Emy Lyon, than whom she 
herself was but little less attractive in exterior 
appearance. Her eyes were blue, though of a 
lighter hue than those of her lovely model, and 
her hair was ringleted, albeit fairer than were 
Emy's auburn curls. But to her fond mother's 
thinking. Miss Thomas at the age of sixteen, 
possessed a more elegant shape. Emy had not 
yet grown to her full height, and was inclined to 
be buxom in the figure. 

Mr. Rumney was at this time but a journeyman 
artist, with his reputation still in the making. 
But recommendation of him was spreading far 
and wide, and flattering accounts of his skill in 
portraiture had reached the ears of Mrs. Thomas. 
That lady entered into communication with the 
artist, and ascertaining that his circumstances 
were poor, prevailed upon him to travel from 
Colchester, where he then was, to Hawarden, for 
the purpose of painting a composite portrait of 
her husband, attended by herself and eldest 
daughter. 

It was while he was engaged in the execution 
of this commission that the storm broke on Emy 
Lyon's head, and that Mr. Rumney first beheld 



42 Nelson's Legacy 

her who later inspired so many of his exquisite 
achievements. 

He had been painting in the great oak parlour, 
Mr. Thomas standing before him, straight and 
stiff, Mrs. Thomas, in all the glory of a new purple 
paduasoy, sitting in an arm-chair, Miss Thomas re- 
clining at her feet. It was a truly admirable com- 
position, and Mr. Rumney, walking back from the 
easel, palette swinging from his thumb and brush 
in hand, was able to assure his patron that this 
was one of the best things he had done. He 
begged Mr. Thomas to step down and look at it, 
and even now was perpending his criticism. Mr. 
Thomas could find no fault with the likeness, 
which indeed was excellent, nor with the paint- 
ing, which was spirited and lively ; but he felt it 
obligatory upon his reputation as a connoisseur, 
and his dignity as a patron, to take exception to 
something in technique or in detail. He therefore 
expressed himself as being hardly satisfied with 
the representation of the red coat he had donned 
for the occasion. 

' It sags under the arms, mister, for all the 
world as if 'twas a sack, and no coat at all.' He 
went up to it, thrusting a broad first finger on to 
the wet paint. ' And what's worst of all, these 
buttons be too far apart.' 

Mr. Rumney's pride as an artist was touched. 



Nelson's Legacy 43 

but his discretion deterred him from arguing the 
point. When a man's pocket is empty, the first 
thing he puts in it — and he be wise — is his pride, 
and de gustibus, especially non est disputandum, 
'twixt client and patron. So poor was Mr. Rumney 
in these days that he had been obliged to leave 
his wife and son behind him while he travelled 
up to London to make his fortune, painting por- 
traits by the way, at five guineas a head, with 
reduction on taking the quantity. There were ten 
guineas at stake on this very canvas, enough to 
mitigate a much greater mortification than could 
be caused by the censure of one whose qualifi- 
cations as critic Mr. Rumney had the lowest 
opinion. So the artist pursed his lips, and affected 
to be considering of the matter, whilst in reality 
he was framing a speech whereby he might tell 
Mr, Thomas to go to the devil, and take his buttons 
with him, yet so as not to give any offence. 

How Mr. Rumney would have yoked civility 
with candour — ever a difficult pair to drive in 
double harness— will never be known, for at that 
critical moment a shriek resounded from the 
kitchen quarters, followed by shrill ejaculations, 
the sound of blows, and yet more screaming. 
Consternation seized the party in the great oak 
parlour. The complaisant smile which Mrs. Thomas 
had worn until her lips were stiff was drawn into 



44 Nelson's Legacy 

a round O of amazement and alarm ; her daughter's 
angehc sweetness was lost in excited curiosity. 
Both of them were on their feet in a trice and 
hurrying to the kitchen, where it was evident a 
battle was proceeding. Mr. Thomas retained his 
composure long enough to possess himself of a 
stout cudgel wherewith to enforce his authority if 
need be. Then he followed the ladies, hurriedly, 
yet not without dignity. Mr. Rumney brought 
up the rear of the procession, allured by the same 
curiosity that will draw an entire town to see a 
dog fight, and quite forgetting the discomfiture 
into which he had been thrown by Mr. Thomas's 
criticism of his fine oil painting. 

The kitchen was in a dreadful turmoil, the 
principal figure in which was Mrs. Ogle, a woman 
of most ample proportions, whose face, always red, 
was now scarlet and moist with sweat. With one 
huge hand, she grasped Will Masters, with the 
other a poker snatched from the hearth. She was 
belabouring him, and he grappling with her, kick- 
ing and trying to bite, the while the pair of them 
revolved about the room, crashing against the 
chairs and table, alternately screaming and shout- 
ing most terrible invectives. 

' I'll learn you to come thieving into my 
kitchen, you lazy, idle, blubbering loon,' the angry 
woman bawled. ' I'll learn you, I'll learn you.' 



Nelson's Legacy 45 

And indeed it seemed that a lesson so rubbed in 
could not lightly be forgotten. 

All the children were in the kitchen, each one 
setting up his separate scream of fright or delight 
at such noise and confusion. The gardener's boy 
was there, too, grinning and calling out encourage- 
ment to both the combatants. Joe Codgers, from 
the stables, was spurring Mrs. Ogle on to greater 
efforts. 

' That's right, mother. Lay it into him. 
Shouldn't be surprised if 'twas him that was busy 
in my harness-room ; get on to him.' Joe gave 
her a yell of encouragement, a species of tally-ho, 
that would have struck terror into the heart of 
the stoutest old dog otter that ever fought terrier ; 
it delighted the children, and almost outvoiced 
Will Masters's howls. For he was howling in 
earnest now, his scarcely adolescent strength beaten 
down by the weight of the angry woman's blows. 

Such was the scene upon which burst Mr. 
Thomas, his wife, eldest daughter and Mr. Rumney. 

' Ha' done, woman, ha' done before you kill 
the lad. Is this a Bedlam or a bear-pit ? Let un 
go, I tell you.' Mr. Thomas forced his way be- 
tween them, sending Will Masters reeling against 
the wall and thrusting Mrs. Ogle back into a 
chair. 

Then arose a babel of explanations, of how 



46 Nelson's Legacy 

Mrs. Ogle had found Will Masters hiding in the 
wood cupboard, and charges of thieving were 
shouted against the boy, who gave back through 
his sobbing breath loud and fierce denial. But it 
was not to these that the itinerant artist gave 
heed, nor to the screaming children and excited 
servants. His gaze was fixed upon a face pale 
with terror, a pair of dark blue eyes drowned in 
tears, lips of incomparable beauty, quivering and 
trembling in distress, upon a mass of auburn 
ringlets escaping from under a mob cap. 

' What an exquisite child ! ' he murmured to 
himself. The scene in the disordered kitchen was 
forgotten, and he feasted his eyes upon every line 
of beauty and wonder of colouring. And now, 
gathering courage, Emy darted forward and poured 
out a passionate defence of the friend and champion 
of her school-days. It was ' only Will Masters,' 
she said, 'Will Masters from the village,' and she 
protested that he was not thieving, and he was 
not a thief, that it was her he had come to see, 
and he meant no harm at all. Then she fell to 
sobbing, and Mr. Rumney thought she was even 
more beautiful than before. When Will Masters 
presently drew close to her for mutual society, 
help and comfort, Mr. Rumney whipped out his 
pocket-book and began to make a pencil drawing 
of the pair of them. 



Nelson's Legacy 47 

Order was restored with some difficulty, the 
children pacified, the servants sent about their 
proper business, and Mrs. Ogle interrogated. Such 
scenes could not be permitted in Broadlane Hall, 
both Mr. and Mrs. Thomas insisted, and they 
pressed for further explanation. 

A very slight investigation led to the dismissal 
of the charge of theft against Will Masters. But 
it had to be admitted that he was concealed in 
the wood cupboard for an unlawful purpose, the 
said unlawful purpose being to intercept Emy on 
the way to the nursery with the dinner, and per- 
suade her to let him walk home with her that 
day from Broadlane Hall to Mrs. Kidd's cottage. 

Mrs. Thomas's face showed grim disapproval. 
Such scenes could not be permitted in her house, 
she repeated, and if this one had truly arisen on 
Emy's account, Emy must go back to the cottage. 
And at that the girl wept afresh, more curls coming 
down, and Mr. Rumney noted that they fell far 
below her waist. He could not but observe, too, 
the whiteness of her neck and the perfection of 
its moulding. His fingers itched for the drawing 
of her. 

But Mr. Thomas fell to laughing, and seizing 
Emy by the arm, looking into her face rather 
rudely, he swore that the lad had good taste. 

' 'Tis as pretty a wench as ever I saw,' he 



48 Nelson's Legacy 

declared, pinching her cheek. Then, more soberly, 
with Mrs. Thomas's eye upon him, he bade her 
' be a good girl and mend her ways.' 

' I do try, sir,' she answered, dropping him a 
cm'tsey, * I do, indeed, for my mother's sake, and 
because Mrs. Thomas has been so good to me.' 
There was no sign of softening on Mrs. Thomas's 
countenance. That good lady was, indeed, be- 
coming more and more displeased by the admira- 
tion of her little nurse-maid so openly shown by 
both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Rumney. Emy was 
not unobservant, and now she addressed her appeal 
to her master rather than to her mistress. 

* And Will here, sir, believe me, he meant no 
harm, he only wanted to ask me to walk with 
him. Do, sir, do beg Mrs. Ogle to forgive him, 
for indeed she has used him sore.' 

She looked up at him with such pleading eyes, 
luminous through their blue depths, and humid 
with tears, that he pinched her cheek again, and 
did as he was asked. 

' Leave off railing at the boy,' he said to Mrs. 
Ogle, ' and see if you can't put something inside 
of him to make up for the bruises you've set on 
the outside. A full belly's a fine cure for a sore 
head. As for his walk home with you this after- 
noon,' he went on to Emy, ' that's for your mis- 
tress to decide. For my part, I think it's tempting 



Nelson's Legacy 49 

the lad too far. If he ben't a thief now, 'tis put- 
ting him in the way of becoming one.' And 
at that he gave another great laugh, and turned 
on his heel. But Mr. Rumney lingered and 
noted again the pretty wondering flush on the 
child's cheek, and the grace of the curtsey she 
dropped as Mr. Thomas left the kitchen, followed 
by his indignant wife. 

Will was duly fed, and further comforted by 
a stoup of small ale. Mrs. Ogle was not a bad- 
natured woman, only one of quick temper, and 
in truth the unexpected appearance of Will Masters 
in the wood cupboard had greatly alarmed her. 
She was willing to make up for her violence at 
her master's bidding, and was so generous with 
the ale that it came about Will walked not home 
at all with Emy Lyon that afternoon, but slept 
instead, heavily, and without dreams. His place 
was taken by Mr. Rumney, who said afterwards 
that, child though she was, only in her fifteenth 
year, Emy had charmed him by the sprightly 
nature of her discourse, and ravished him by the 
grace with which she moved by his side. 

It may be that Mr. Rumney spoke too warmly 
of her, or perhaps it was the generosity with which 
Mr. Thomas concurred in the praises, that con- 
firmed Mrs. Thomas in the resolve, nebulous during 
the melee in the kitchen, but soon to take shape 



50 Nelson's Legacy 

and form. No woman, least of all one of experi- 
ence like the lady of Broadlane Hall, could have 
failed to notice how particularly the two men 
looked at the pretty nurse-maid in the following 
days, Mr. Rumney following her in her walks and 
begging her to sit for him, Mr. Thomas pinching 
her cheek and asking her where she found her 
roses. 

Miss Thomas was pale and languished mod- 
ishly. Mr. Thomas vowed that he liked to see a 
girl buxom and as if her food nourished her. Emy's 
roses deepened under his attentions, so he told her 
again that she must be a good girl and come to 
him if the boys plagued her ; which she promised 
to do, thanking him for his kindness, but adding 
in her childish way, that Will Masters never 
plagued her, but was her old schoolfellow with 
whom she had been sweethearting until Mrs. 
Thomas told her mother it was unbecoming, and 
that she had better be nurse- maid to the young 
ladies. 

' And I'll warrant the schoolmaster gave a good 
account of you to Mrs. Thomas.' 

Emy had to confess roguishly that she feared 
' 'twas but indifferent good.' At which Mr. Thomas 
expressed surprise, and would have continued his 
inquiries, but that Mrs. Thomas came out at that 
moment, reproving Emy for standing gossiping 



Nelson's Legacy 51 

when she ought to be at work, and sending her 
to her duties. 

Mr. Thomas vowed she was hard upon the girl. 

' A httle beauty hke that won't long be nurse- 
maid to a parcel of brats. Any man with half an 
eye in his head can see she's fit for something 
better. Why, Mr. Rumney, who has painted half 
the fine ladies in the county, says her beauty is 
most uncommon.' 

' 'Tis to be hoped her beauty won't bring her 
into a worse situation,' his lady retorted tartly. 

This incident, with other passages of a like 
nature, determined Mrs. Thomas that Emy Lyon 
could not be serving-girl in her establishment 
much longer. Mr. Thomas blustered, but the 
grey mare was the better horse, and 'twas only 
in his cups he held his own. 

' A curse on women's jealousy,' the squire 
said to Mr. Rumney. ' They can't deny beauty 
when they see it, but they'd go to the gallows 
sooner than acknowledge it. What a shape, man ! 
What a shape ! She'd set London by the ears if 
she appeared at Ranelagh.' 

Mr. Rumney thought so too. He may even 
have told Emy as much, and so set Heaven knows 
what visions moving before the girl's lively mind. 
Emy was quick to see a future in which ease and 
gaiety might take the place of work and frowning 



52 Nelson's Legacy 

reprimands from Mrs. Ogle and her like. She had 
no opposition to make to any plan that should 
set her in new scenes and give her new experiences. 
The lightness of her nature rejoiced in any pros- 
pect that promised change. Mary Kidd trembled 
and feared, and the good grandmother was full of 
misgivings, but no foreboding or presage of evil 
entered the mind of the girl who was now to be 
exposed to all the evils of the great metropolis. 
She was still little more than a child. But Mrs. 
Thomas thought that a child Will Masters could 
not leave alone, to whom Mr. Thomas was com- 
plaisant, and Mr. Rumney attentive, was better 
away from Broadlane Hall. 

And Mrs. Thomas was wise in her generation, 
as the event proved. 



CHAPTER IV 

Emy misbehaves in Cliatham Place and follows it by indiscretion 
at Mr. Linley's. She meets Mr, Harry Angelo. 

IT was in the house of the learned Dr. Budd, a 
surgeon of eminence living in Chatham Place, 
near St. James's Market in the Blackfriars, that 
Emy Lyon first found shelter in the great capital. 
Dr. Budd was Mrs. Thomas's brother, and Mrs. 
Thomas deemed that a young person even more 
addicted to frivolity than Emy had yet shown 
herself to be, might profit by the advantages offered 
her in such a situation. To the ordinary solicitude 
for the welfare of her servants felt by every con- 
scientious mistress there would be added the 
personal interest arising from the fact that Emy 
came from the establishment at Broadlane Hall 
where Dr. Budd had a worthy relative, and where 
so often Mrs. Budd had been an honoured guest. 
Without evincing partiality, which would have 
been to do less than justice to her other servants, 
Mrs. Budd was undoubtedly disposed to bestow 
favour upon a girl sent to her with such credentials. 
But as it chanced, unfortunately — although, per- 
haps, there are persons who would rather use the 

53 



54 Nelson's Legacy 

word ' providentially,' for it so happened that all 
Emy's misfortune led her upwards, and not down- 
wards—there was at this time, also in the domestic 
employment of Dr. Budd and his lady, a young 
woman named Jane Powell. In addition to an 
outward appearance very pleasing, and a refine- 
ment of manner unusual in persons of her station 
of life, Jane Powell was the possessor of histrionic 
talents wholly exceptional, which in after years 
carried her to eminence in the theatrical profession. 
No generous heart can fail to sympathise with the 
efforts of genius to rise from sordid circumstance, 
or refuse applause to that perseverance which 
enables it to triumph over obstacles. But sym- 
pathy cannot be permitted to deflect justice, and 
we are compelled to censure the impropriety of 
conduct which is not infrequently indulged in by 
persons of an artistic temperament who devote 
to the gratification of their tastes, and the indul- 
gence of their propensities, the time for which 
they accept pecuniary reward to give to other 
employments. Seen in proper perspective such 
behaviour is dishonest, and deserving of repro- 
bation. 

It was precisely this fault which Jane Powell 
frequently, wellnigh habitually, committed, and 
with which all too soon she infected her new 
fellow-servant. Tasks were performed perfunc- 



Nelson's Legacy 55 

torily, and with unbecoming haste, in order that 
these two young females might the sooner fall to 
practising steps in the kitchen, hastily disordered 
for that purpose, to dressing their heads in imita- 
tion of actresses whom Jane had seen at Drury 
Lane, to posturing and striking attitudes for the 
admiration of vast audiences that as yet only 
existed in their fecund imagination. Their talk 
was ever of the glitter and excitement of the 
theatre, their waking dreams were of the triumph 
Jane at least was confident she would achieve. 

Mrs. Budd, although perennially dissatisfied 
with her maid-servants, disappointed with Emy's 
levity, and disheartened by Jane's idleness, had 
yet for a considerable time no conception to what 
lengths these faults would carry them. She, no 
less than her sister-in-law, was a conscientious 
woman and good housewife. But if she had often 
to reprove these young women for their negligence 
of duty and looseness of behaviour, which seemed 
ominous to her as indicative of bad habits in 
formation, she had really little idea of the degree 
which these faults had already attained. And her 
indignation at her discovery was the greater for 
the way it came about. 

The doctor had engaged himself to dine with 
friends occupying a considerable position in society, 
and early in a certain evening he departed to their 



56 Nelson's Legacy 

house, which was in another quarter of the town, 
carrying his lady with him. Mrs. Budd left her 
home with little misgiving. Jane Powell and Emy 
Lyon were bidden to finish their not too onerous 
duties and ordered to retire early, after snuffing 
the candles, and seeing that all doors were barred 
save the one on the latch, which would serve for 
the entry of Dr. and Mrs. Budd. But the rare 
opportunity of the absence of the mistress of the 
house was one not to be lightly lost. Jane and 
Emy projected a frolic the like of which they had 
often contemplated. Mrs. Budd's wardrobe was 
not kept locked ; they would dress up and give 
an entertainment ! Their audience might consist 
of the kitchen cat and the cockroaches that made 
their sluggish disposition about the warm corners 
of the hearth, but in imagination the scene was 
a crowded theatre, and not Mr. Garrick himself 
would evoke more tumultuous applause. 

Jane, in Mrs. Budd's most cherished possession ; 
the white satin wedding dress that had lain these 
seven years past enwrapped in lavender; danced, 
sang, and pirouetted. A touch of soot served for 
patches. Her hair was piled high, flour served 
her for powder, and material for a week's puddings 
had gone to its elegant whiteness. The red for 
her cheeks she had found in Mrs. Budd's bed- 
chamber, although afterwards, to her husband. 



Nelson's Legacy 57 

that lady expressed both surprise and wonderment 
at its appearance. Emy had draped the auburn 
abundance of her curls with a mantilla of valuable 
lace ; she had disembarrassed herself of her frock 
and modest kerchief, and candour compels the 
admission of the fact that nothing but the mantilla 
and her chemise hid the elegance of her form. 

The room was brightly lighted with candles 
abstracted from the stores cupboard, the key of 
which Mrs. Budd had so trustfully left at home. 
Their hilarity waxed with the occasion, soon they 
forgot all but the exuberance of their spirits and 
the exercise of the talents which assuredly were 
the birthright of both of them. The kitchen 
table, which had been set against the wall so as 
to leave a greater area available for movement, 
was discovered to be the ideal stage. Jane was 
the first to jump upon it, and now with loud voice, 
and the poker for baton, she sang and directed 
the dance that Emy began to perform in her 
character as a wood nymph ; she was a dryad 
inviting unwilling faun, the very spirit of the 
wood was in the intoxicating laughter of her eyes 
and the wildness of her unbound locks. Hers 
was really the poetry of motion, her wantonness 
an irresistible appeal. 

And thus it was the doctor and Mrs. Budd 
found them when, startled by the sound of voices 



58 Nelson's Legacy 

and laughter as they made their sober entrance, 
they descended to the kitchen and burst upon 
the scene that had so different an effect upon 
each. Mrs. Budd, although she did not take in 
all at once the tragedy of the wedding dress, 
the lace mantilla, and all the desecration of her 
wardrobe, was for the first moment overwhelmed 
and speechless with indignation. Whilst Dr. Budd, 
good man, warmed with port and the conviviality 
in which he had taken part, lost sight of the hein- 
ousness of the offence against decency and order 
on which he was gazing, and could do naught but 
wonder at the beauty revealed by Emy's inde- 
corous toilette. Her arms were bare, her bosom 
exposed, all the promise of her budding womanhood 
revealed. Since she had been in London she had 
become slender, and the slenderness, so white and 
exquisite, had already a warm and sensuous appeal. 
Emy's beauty was only in the bud ; but in thin 
chemise, with her wild curls and dancing eyes, 
'twas already a thing to wonder at. If Mrs. 
Budd for the moment was speechless with anger, 
that which kept the good doctor silent for the 
same space had another name. For in truth the 
make of the girl was beyond compare, and would 
have inflamed any man's blood. 

The girls had been too absorbed in their play- 
acting to hear the entry of their master and 



Nelson's Legacy 59 

mistress. The doctor had time to note those 
slender white arms of Emy's, the dimplement in 
the elbow, to watch the graceful movements making 
play under the revealing chemise, and then . . . 
Well, what befell needs the Homeric pen, and 
Heaven forfend that ours should attempt it. 
Mrs. Budd recognised all at once the genesis of 
Jane Powell's masquerade, the treasures of her 
wardrobe, and the wastefulness of the flaming 
candles. It was upon Jane her first rage de- 
scended. Jane was dragged in a trice from the 
table, the dress was torn off her back, and her 
reputation torn no less quickly. ' Thankless,' and 
* brazen,' and ' abandoned ' were epithets that 
descended like blows on the bare shoulders ; the 
powdered hair was pulled down violently, the flour 
descended on Mrs. Budd's second best silk dress, 
but failed to cool her violent speech, or the red 
that inflamed her cheeks. 

Meanwhile Emy, startled and terrified, was 
being upbraided by her master. But was it up- 
braiding ? Mrs. Budd certainly did not think so 
when, diverting her attention for a moment from 
the dishevelled and panting Jane, she perceived 
that her husband had his arms about the hussy, 
and was admonishing her for exposing herself 
with something that seemed to be warmer than 
professional solicitude. ' Wanton ' was the word 



6o Nelson's Legacy 

Mrs. Budd used on that occasion, and would have 
said worse, no doubt, but that the doctor checked 
her, and spoke of the girl's youth and, in mitiga- 
tion of punishment, said it was only a frolic in 
which they had been engaged, and harmless, but 
that the night was chill and the draughts 
dangerous. He kept his hand on Emy's bosom 
with the object of feeling if her heart were sound. 
And indeed it was palpitating ; but that may 
have been from the dance. Dr. Budd suggested 
she should come up to the consulting-room and 
let him investigate with a stethoscope the con- 
dition of her health. But Mrs. Budd was firm in 
resisting the proposal. The turn affairs had taken 
startled her into prompt measures. Both girls 
were ordered immediately to their attic. In the 
morning, she said, ominously, she would deal with 
their offence, which now, however, seemed light in 
comparison with the one of which she saw the 
possibility dawning in her husband's eyes. Mrs. 
Budd was not without experience of his com- 
plaisance with his female patients. He adjured her 
to compose herself, suggesting that if she stayed 
to recover her finery, put out the candles, and 
restore the kitchen to its wonted order, he would 
himself see the culprits upstairs. But she flouted 
his suggestion, and there were warm words between 
them, during the passage of which she intercepted 



Nelson's Legacy 6i 

a glance passing between Jane and Emy, in which 
there was not penitence, but some amusement. 
Then, indeed, her wrath grew beyond reason or 
measure, and 'twere well to draw a veil over 
what followed. But the mischief, no doubt, lay 
in the doctor's interference, and if the result showed 
that a modus Vivendi had been arrived at between 
husband and wife, and perhaps a reconciliation 
in the solitude of the bedchamber, it boded evil, 
and not good, for the two girls, who, having been 
caught in flagrante delicto^ could oppose no argu- 
ment to the cold morning justice that was meted 
out to them. 

The doctor had departed to his duties at the 
Hospital of St. Thomas what time their fate was 
communicated to them and no appeal to him was 
possible. Otherwise Jane Powell, who already 
knew the world better than her young friend, had 
determined to make it. They had been locked in 
their attic all night. Emy had spent the time in 
tears, Jane in preparation for the dismissal she 
felt was inevitable. She tried to encourage Emy, 
and raise her drooping spirits. She told her there 
was no doubt Dr. Budd looked favourably upon 
her misdemeanour, or upon her, and she drew a 
most favourable augury from his attitude. 

But, as has been seen, she reckoned without 
Mrs. Budd's promptitude and the absence of her 



62 Nelson's Legacy 

spouse. Mrs. Budd had recognised, even as Jane 
had observed, the inchnation of the doctor to 
befriend the young and beautiful girl who was in 
his charge. And her measures were taken accord- 
ingly. She dismissed both girls from her service, 
laying credit to herself, in her severe admonition 
of them before their departure, that she adven- 
tured no stronger steps. She talked of Bridewell 
and the stocks, of the whipping-post, and the way 
the law had of dealing with untrustworthy servants. 
But for herself she was satisfied to see the backs 
of them. 

Thus it came about that before ten o'clock 
Emy Lyon found herself standing outside the 
closed door of Dr. Budd's house, her few posses- 
sions in a box in her hands, the only human 
being whom she knew in the whole of the crowded 
city standing beside her, outcast and friendless 
like herself. 

Her situation appeared desperate, bringing 
tears of self-pity to her eyes. And truly it was 
a situation full of grave peril to one so lovely and 
ignorant of the world. Yet who can gainsay the 
justice of her punishment ? 

' We'll go to Drury Lane and see Mr. Sheridan,' 
Jane declared ; ' 'tis acting has brought about our 
trouble, and maybe 'tis acting we are best fitted 
for, and not service at all. My aunt has a place 



Nelson's Legacy 63 

about the theatre, and will help to opportunity 
of speech with him. Our looks must do the 
rest,' she added flippantly, smiling to herself, 
as one who knew her stock-in-trade was sale- 
able. 

She encouraged her companion with much 
shrewd philosophy, and led her directly to the 
great theatre in Drury Lane. Success is often to 
the adventurous. The manager could not refuse 
an interview prayed for so urgently and with 
aspirants of whose looks he had heard so glowing 
an account. He had the young women admitted, 
and examined them straitly about their story 
and their qualifications for the stage. When Jane 
Powell put the facts before him he laughed, thus 
inspiring hope again in Emy's doubting heart. 
Jane had the glibber tongue, and was ready to 
show her quality by immediately singing and 
dancing. To Mr. Sheridan's great entertainment 
she gave also a spirited imitation of the scene in 
the Chatham Place kitchen that had led to their 
present dilemma. But Emy's eyes were swollen 
and disfigured with crying, and she had neither 
the courage nor the spirit for exhibition. 

Mr. Sheridan consented to give Jane Powell a 
trial, but he would make no such promise to Emy. 

' What am I to do ? ' Emy pleaded. It was 
the first, but not the last occasion, that the same 



64 Nelson's Legacy 

cry rang from her lips when her own imprudence 
brought her to a critical situation. 

Mr. Sheridan looked at her, with the practised 
eye of a man whose business it is to appraise female 
appearances. He was struck by the wonderful 
innocence of the great blue eyes, arrested by the 
mute appeal of virginity still unsullied and in peril. 
There was little of life that Mr. Sheridan did not 
know, either at first hand from experience, or at 
second hand as mirrored in the playhouse he con- 
trolled. It seemed certain that evil would befall 
the child if she were left to her own resources. 
And he was ever a man of heart. 

' I will give you a letter to my father-in-law,' 
he said, after a minute's reflection. ' He is in 
need of assistance with an invalid son, and may 
possibly give you a trial with my recommendation. 
The boy is in a consumption.' 

' My father died of a consumption,' Emy 
interposed eagerly. With hope of employment her 
light spirits reacted quickly ; and now Mr. Sheridan 
was struck by her animation. She was not yet 
ripe for the stage, had shown no talent like that 
of Jane Powell, but already he was loath to lose 
sight of her. 

Emy accepted the suggestion to take service 
with Mr. Linley, uttering a thousand protestations 
that she would never betray such generosity. 



Nelson's Legacy 65 

Mr. Sheridan put an end to them with the air of 
one who sets small store by words, and bade the 
girl make it her business to please her new master. 
He added carelessly 'twould do her no harm in 
her spare time to study "a play or two, and 
later he would hear if she made progress in 
elocution. 

Thus, by a stroke of good fortune which they 
could not have expected, and by the benign inter- 
position of a Providence which they had done so 
much to offend, both girls were saved from the 
worst consequences of their folly. Jane Powell 
obtained, and kept, her engagement in the theatre, 
of which she subsequently became a brilliant orna- 
ment, and Emy Lyon found a refuge in the house 
of respectable and worthy citizens. The lesson 
was a sharp one, and its effect might well have 
been permanent. 

Nevertheless, it would seem that Emy had not 
learned prudence. Certain it is that the issue 
of this affair was not satisfactory to her rescuer, 
nor entirely creditable to herself, although the 
fault imputed to her on this next occasion was due 
to excess of sensibility, and not lack of decorum. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Linley already mourned 
the death of a son, cut off in the bloom of youth, 
and now they were watching with dreadful appre- 
hension the fell progress of a consumption which 



66 Nelson's Legacy 

sapped the vitality of another, full of promise, 
who carried the barque of their high hopes. 

Mr. Sheridan's letter, and the proffer of Emy's 
services, came in the nick of time. They made 
no investigation into her antecedents. Mr. Sheri- 
dan's letter was enough when, coupled with it, 
was the fact that Mr. Linley was impatient of the 
sick-room and Mrs. Linley worn out with her 
services there. 

It is a matter of common observation that 
hope, and confidence of restoration to health, wax 
higher in the bosom of consumptives the nearer 
they approach their inevitable end. One might 
imagine that Mother Nature spreads this fond 
delusion before their eyes that the gloom of despair 
might not be added to the melancholy perception 
of failing forces. This was Lieutenant Linley's 
condition ; the brilliancy of his eyes and the 
colour in his cheeks, as he saw them reflected from 
the mirror, seemed to promise complete recovery. 
He spoke hopefully to his new nurse, and told 
her stories of what he had done in the days of 
his vigour, making clear what he would do again 
when these should return. Emy listened to him 
with increasing interest, and soon he felt that he 
was deriving advantage from her abundant vitality, 
from which there seemed to emanate a health as 
contagious as is disease. 



Nelson's Legacy 67 

The young man drew benefit from the pro- 
pinquity of the beautiful young girl who waited 
upon him, but it was an artificial rather than a 
natural benefit, and presently the inevitable hap- 
pened. Emy had a compassionate heart, to which 
the weakness of her patient appealed. She soon 
became to him something more than attendant 
and he was not willing she should be a moment 
out of his sight. He craved a love that she was 
not ripe, nor ready, to give him, but a simulation 
of which at first made him content. Pity was 
what she had for him, but they both misnamed it. 
In truth, he came in the end to repel, rather than 
to attract her. For his illness made him fierce 
in his desires, and her virginity shrank uncon- 
sciously from a morbid condition that she could 
neither understand nor escape. He prayed his 
parents to consent to a marriage between them, 
and they could refuse nothing to the dying lad. 
But it may be imagined that they had no tender 
feelings towards Emy ! They consented, but in- 
sisted that the ceremony should be deferred for 
his convalescence. They reprobated her for not 
yielding to him more cheaply, blaming her for 
that which indeed was culpable in neither of 
them. They would have blamed her equally, or 
more, had she given him that which as yet she 
had hardly learnt to value. Her_^situation was full 



68 Nelson's Legacy 

of difficulties. She wanted neither to marry Samuel 
Linley nor to become his mistress. She was still 
little more than a child, and the feelings she 
evoked, and was doomed always to evoke, found 
as yet no response in her own breast. Yet was 
she no longer completely ignorant, for her circum- 
stances in the sick-room, the physician in attend- 
ance, and Mr. Linley himself, to say nothing of 
Samuel's fevered pleading, combined to open 
her eyes. But she was still innocent, and her 
youth should have pleaded for her when the 
event happened for which they had all been 
waiting. 

Samuel's excitement at the prospect of the 
hurried wedding he craved brought on a violent 
fit of coughing ; it was followed by high fever 
and prostration. He never rallied, lingering too 
short a time to make provision for the girl upon 
whom his ill-starred attachment worked so dire 
an ill. His death relieved his parents, or so they 
deemed it, of any duty toward her. They had 
been jealous of his attentions to her, and now 
they were in anguish at his loss. That was their 
excuse for their treatment of this young and 
beautiful girl, but indeed 'twas a poor one. Imme- 
diately his son was dead, Thomas Linley drove 
Emy from his house, and once more the weeping 
girl was without a home, alone in London. 



Nelson's Legacy 69 

Beauty in distress is more quickly evocative 
of pity than plainness in a like strait. This is 
not merely the apothegm of the cynic ; it covers 
matter for the reflection of a philosopher and a 
religious, and for the pen of poet and historian. 
Emy Lyon now provided another illustration of 
its truth. 

At sixteen years of age she was so beautiful 
that all who passed by turned to gaze after her. 
Clad in poor mourning, with her eyes brimming 
with tears, and every mark of agitation upon her 
countenance, she walked along Rathbone Place, 
wondering whether she should turn her steps to- 
wards Drury Lane and Jane Powell, or where else 
she might find a refuge in her desolation. She 
had given little love to Samuel Linley, yet was 
she distressed at his death, and distracted by her 
own situation. 

In this disconsolate condition she was stayed by 
a gentleman of fashionable appearance, who, with 
every expression of sympathy and good breeding, 
declared his regret for her manifest unhappiness 
and his ardent desire to be of service to her. Pru- 
dence dictates caution, but necessity refuses obedi- 
ence to law. Emy raised her eyes to the stranger's 
face, and, realising her immediate necessity, re- 
sponded to the amiability written upon it. She 
acquainted him with the recent events of her life, 



70 Nelson's Legacy 

and wept anew when she spoke of Lieutenant 
Linley's death. 

' Indeed I but did my duty to him, and fondled 
him no more than he compelled me, sir,' she pro- 
tested, ' and there was no truth in what his father 
said, nor the harsh names he called me. Indeed I 
am an innocent girl. Oh, sir, if you know any- 
where where I can find a shelter, or can devise any 
means whereby a virtuous girl can earn a decent 
living, tell me, for I am indeed sore distressed, and 
know not which way to turn.' 

' What is your name ? ' he asked, and when 
she told him, added : ' Confidence for confidence ; 
mine is Henry Angelo, and I am not without 
acquaintance in the polite world. Even now I 
am on my way to visit a lady of quality, and if 
you will accompany me, I will present you to 
her. Then you can repeat your story, and if you 
receive no comfort there, I will try to devise some 
other plan.' 

Cheered by his easy kindness, and with confi- 
dence somewhat restored by the gentleness of his 
demeanour, Emy accompanied her new acquaint- 
ance, not failing to perceive how frequently he 
had occasion to acknowledge the salutations of 
men no less fashionable in appearance than him- 
self, and, bare-headed, how often he would bow, 
with inimitable elegance, to the fair occupants of 



Nelson's Legacy 71 

passing carriages. Such familiar acquaintance with 
the great world on the part of her cicerone could 
not fail to impress the humble girl, and her timidity 
was lessened by the affable candour of his con- 
versation. 

She ventured an apology for walking with one 
who was on terms of such easy familiarity with 
people of the first fashion of both sexes. He 
replied : 

' I will make no pretension to nobility, with 
a view to deceiving a confiding girl. My father 
is the first master of equitation, and is equally 
famous as a professor of the art of defence. 
Peerless as a swordsman in England, he has been 
patronised by the highest in the land, and at his 
table I have become acquainted with many great 
and eminent people, some of whom, as you have 
seen, have done me the honour of recognition 
to-day.' 

Engaged in such conversation as this, the 
strangely met pair arrived at Arlington Street, in 
the near neighbourhood of the Palace of St. James's, 
and being instantly admitted, Mr. Angelo left 
Emy temporarily alone whilst he was received by 
his friend, whose name he informed Emy was 
Kelly. It was not long before he reappeared, and 
delighted her with the assurance that everything 
had gone well. 



72 Nelson's Legacy 

' Mrs. Kelly will presently grant you an inter- 
view,' he informed her, ' and I have every confi- 
dence that my introduction will secure you an 
engagement in some capacity suited to your quali- 
fications. No, say no more ; I am delighted that 
good fortune threw me in your way. Be as happy 
as you are beautiful, and I shall be enchanted to 
have done you a small service.' And with a most 
elegant bow, he took his leave of her, as it proved, 
for ever. 

The imputation of motives is a delicate task, 
involving a moral responsibility not lightly to be 
undertaken. In the case just recorded in this 
narrative it is charitable, as it is sufficient, to 
suppose that in introducing Emy Lyon to the 
house of this so-called lady of quality Mr. Angelo 
was actuated only by a desire to find an unfortu- 
nate fellow-creature, not far removed from his 
own sphere of life, an immediate shelter from the 
inhospitable streets. But in actual fact he could 
hardly have introduced her to conditions more 
favourable to the development of that side of her 
character which most needed restraint, or pre- 
senting greater or more obvious temptations to a 
girl of such rare loveliness. 

Mrs. Kelly's house was the favourite resort of 
gentlemen of the fashionable world, the majority 
of whom were dissipated and extravagant, without 



Nelson's Legacy 73 

principle, and devoid of morality. As for the lady, 
her sole object in life was to provide the means of 
gratifying the love of pleasure of those who at 
the same time ministered to her own. In such 
an establishment anything like moral discipline 
was out of the question. Night was prolonged far 
into the day, devoted to riotous festivity, in 
which sobriety and decorous behaviour had no 
place. Regularity in the performance of their 
duties was not incumbent upon the servants, who 
gave sufficient satisfaction if their work was not 
discovered to have been left undone. They were 
permitted to employ the rest of their time as they 
pleased, without reference to the propriety of their 
amusements, or the company they kept. Modesty, 
delicacy of sentiment, virtuous reflection, could 
not endure in such an atmosphere as this. 
Familiarity with every form of licentiousness bred 
indifference to the result, custom furnished specious 
justification for gratifying inclination. Mrs. Kelly, 
at Harry Angelo's request, took Emy into her 
service, but 'twas a doubtful charity. 

Soon, all too soon, Emy became acclimatised to 
her surroundings. Something of the country bloom 
had been brushed from her at the Linleys'. At 
Mrs. Kelly's that which, but a short time ago, 
would have filled her with horror, now provided 
her with ever-increasing interest. Her own beauty 



74 Nelson's Legacy 

was conspicuous, and this was a more powerful 
recommendation to her mistress than virtuous 
character. The lovely girl, ostensibly occupied in 
domestic work, became the object of ardent pur- 
suit by the young bloods who frequented the gay 
house, and in their pursuit they had the encour- 
agement of their hostess. Emy's perfect shape, 
her regular features, her graceful movement, her 
indescribable sweetness of expression were capped, 
crowned, and made peerless by an air of art- 
less innocence. On many occasions was Emy com- 
pelled to call all her spirit, and even her strength, 
to the defence of her virtue. Nevertheless, it is 
to her credit that for a time she defended it 
successfully. 

In houses such as that of Mrs. Kelly social 
distinctions are but indifferently observed. Emy 
Lyon rose insensibly from the kitchen to the with- 
dra wing-room. Endowed by nature with a musical 
voice, a fair ear, and a retentive memory, she 
acquired the art of singing the songs in vogue at 
the moment with considerable effect. Her natural 
gift of mimicry was encouraged, and presently, 
instead of the safety of domestic employment, she 
was assisting to entertain Mrs. Kelly's guests by 
the exercise of her newly found art. Mr. Sheridan 
heard her again, but, perhaps prejudiced by his 
father-in-law, he vowed he detected in her nothing 



Nelson's Legacy 75 

of the genius of which he was told. He pointed 
out also that her ear was fair only, and not good. 
She frequently sang out of tune, was still the victim 
of embarrassment and uncertain of her place. 
Where none is virtuous, virtue is apt to become a 
reproach. Emy was made to feel by Mrs. Kelly, 
and other ladies of the same quality, that her 
chastity betrayed her humble origin. They found 
in her anxiety for its preservation a subject for 
humour, and she had hardly sufficient strength of 
principle to disregard entirely their quips and 
jests at her expense. Her mind was ever in a 
turmoil, sometimes her blood was inflamed by 
what she saw or heard, sometimes her delicacy 
was outraged. But no real temptation assailed 
her, in the true sense of the word, in the young 
bloods and old roues who were the patrons of 
Mrs. Kelly's house of accommodation. There was 
none to move her to the sentiment that is the first 
temptation of young females. Emy's virtue was 
to fall by dint of the generosity of her nature, not 
by any weakness that might deprive her thus 
early of the sympathy of our readers. 

Among the visitors to the Arlington Street 
house was Dr. Graham, the young and handsome 
empiric, whose intelligence was already being proved 
by the manner in which he was using his knowledge 
not so much of medicine as of men. He it was 



76 Nelson's Legacy 

alone of all that community of loose women and 
debauched men who perceived the quality of Emy's 
resistance to the surrounding atmosphere. And it 
was only he to whom she listened with pleasure, 
and who, had he chosen, could no doubt have 
accomplished the downfall which he set himself 
rather to avert. He encouraged her in her attempts 
to raise herself from her lowly position. A very 
pleasant friendship was soon established between 
Dr. Graham and the young girl whose position was 
so uncertain in the house, the girl who was now 
scrubbing in the kitchen, and anon singing in the 
drawing-room, but who, whether in one or the 
other case, was conspicuous by something of per- 
sonality. Truly Dr. Graham felt for her, and 
promised her his countenance and protection. But 
his own fortune was yet in the building. He could 
exhibit his interest, promise his friendship, but 
he could do little more for her at the moment. 
Yet when peril was at hand, he was able to 
mitigate the force of the blow, as will be seen by 
those who have the courage to pursue the relation 
of Emy's history. 

Another of the young men of fashion whose 
acquaintance Emy made in Mrs. Kelly's establish- 
ment was Charles Willett Payne, a naval captain 
employed in the regulating service. A gallant 
officer, and a man of good feeling, notwithstanding 



Nelson's Legacy "j^] 

some small taste for debauchery, he was one of 
the few who had refrained from persecuting Emy 
Lyon with his attentions. Her youth and in- 
genuousness were her protection from his gallantry ; 
he was not a seducer, only a man of pleasure. He 
accepted Emy Lyon's presence in the gay house, 
but in point of fact he had taken little notice of 
her, for his light affections were otherwise engaged. 
One evening, however, when the fun was waxing 
furious in Arlington Street, a clamour and tumult 
arose in the street outside. The noise excited no 
attention in Mrs. Kelly's reception-rooms, where, 
indeed, there was sufficient noise already. Emy 
had been summoned from her place in the kitchen 
to give an imitation of a singer now drawing the 
town to the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and, 
flushed and excited, she was receiving the applause 
and encouragement of her audience. The group 
was joined by a young Lishman, whose admiration 
had already kept pace with his indiscretion. 

' Faith, Mistress Emy,' he began, ' and can't 
ye be satisfied with filling the house, that ye must 
be filling the street as well ? As I walked up to 
Arlington Street from my club in St. James's, 'pon 
my honour, I thought there was a riot.' 

' What d'ye mean ? ' she asked him nervously, 
and indeed he was regarding her with intentness. 

' The folks are swarming round the door like 



78 Nelson's Legacy 

bees round a queen in July. 'Tis no exaggeration 
that I had to fight my way through. Your admirers 
are being driven away by force, and necessary force, 
I assure you. There's a lad amongst them that 
calls himself Will Masters, who speaks of you by 
name. Fists are going, cudgels swinging, cutlasses 
flashing . . .' 

* Will Masters ? ' she echoed. ' Will Masters 
from Hawarden ! And cutlasses ! ' 

' Aye, cutlasses. The constables have much 
ado to keep the mob in order. Before Gad ! I'm 
telling you the truth.' Then seeing that her 
colour changed, and her beautiful blue eyes were 
suffused with tears, he added : ' And if it's the 
fellow outside on whose account you've refused 
every gentleman that frequents the house, you're 
likely to remain a virgin. For the pressgang have 
taken him ; there's work before the Navy for 
many a year, and a great lack of men.' 

Emy now burst out crying, and was quickly 
surrounded by the curious, whose wit saw fresh 
food for laughter in the transition of the merry 
songstress into ' Niobe, all tears.' 

Mr. Dennis O'Flanagan explained the jest. 

' There is a young gallant outside, fresh from 
the country, but, by my troth, he looks more 
bucolic than gallant, clay- caked, with something 
of the ploughboy about him, who has tramped a 



Nelson's Legacy 79 

hundred miles or more for the chaste embraces of 
this lady.' He bowed to Emy mockingly, and 
she averted her eyes, for indeed she could not 
stomach his pleasantry. 'And now the pressgang 
have him instead,' he continued mockingly. 

But others in the company were more com- 
passionate, and one, moved by the girl's real dis- 
tress, suggested to her that if her friend were not 
yet embarked, and if 'twere true, as she sobbed 
out, that his mother was a widow, and he an 
only son, Captain Willett Payne had it in his power 
to effect an enlargement. 

Emy's unhappy impulsiveness took fire at the 
thought of saving her whilom playfellow from his 
dreadful situation. She knew the gallant young 
officer as one of the few who had not singled her 
out for unwelcome attention. She would make 
an appeal to him, an immediate, urgent appeal. 
The task was not wholly an uncongenial one ; it 
fell in with her restless humour and spirit of adven- 
ture ; it satisfied her sense of loyalty ; and any 
scruple she might have had on the score of prudence 
was silenced by the memory of how little notice 
Captain Willett Payne had taken of her or her 
looks. Perhaps she had been piqued at his abstin- 
ence, perhaps her taste for histrionic effect liked 
the prospect of making the appeal of beauty in 
distress to the handsome sailor who had regarded 



8o Nelson's Legacy 

her so indifferently. Whatever the true genesis 
of her action, Emy Lyon ventured forth that 
night to seek the rooms of Captain Willett Payne, 
a gallant, and a man ^ of fashion, with no other 
armour than her beauty. Which is as much as 
to say that she adventured an encounter with a 
highwayman with no other weapon than her filled 
purse. 

She knew where he lived— only a few yards 
away, in Piccadilly. Hurrying to her room, when 
night had fallen and the house lay enwrapped in 
its wicked silence, she pulled on a cloak and hooded 
her head and face. Then, without staying to ask 
for leave, or to reflect on any possible consequences 
to herself, she ran through the streets, and soon 
was hammering at the door of the captain's 
lodgings. She was admitted by the captain's own 
servant, who first stared with undisguised surprise 
at her belated entry, but presently with no less 
disguised admiration. For, under the hood, the 
blue eyes were bright, and her eagerness for the 
chance of pleading for Will broke through the 
necessity for caution in showing her face. 

' 'Tis late for visitors,' said Captain Willett 
Payne's servant, hesitatingly. The fair visitor 
was unknown to him, and he knew not what to 
do or say. ' Are you sure it's the captain you 
want ? ' And he added, out of the grossness of 




LADY HAMILTOX AS ST. CECILIA 

FROM THE PAINTING BY ROMNEY, IN THE POSSESSION 

OF WATSON FOTHERGILL, ESQ. 



Nelson*s Legacy 8i 

his nature, ' He's not the one to disappoint a lady, 
and if he did, dammee, my pretty, I'll oblige ye 
myself.' 

She did not rebuke him, scarcely heard him 
indeed, and in another moment found herself in 
Willett Payne's sitting-room, where the captain 
was already preparing to retire for the night. He 
was standing near the fireless grate, in his shirt- 
sleeves, breeches, and slippered stockings. A dress- 
coat and laced vest were thrown over the back of 
a chair, and through the opened folding door which 
led into his bedchamber Emy saw lighted candles 
before a great mirror, and all the toilet para- 
phernalia of a man of fashion. He stifled an 
oath of astonishment as she halted abruptly and 
nervously. The man may have been drinking ; 
the master was certainly far from sober. He took 
a step forward : 

' Why, 'tis Emy, Emy from Mrs. Kelly's. Well 
done ! ' he cried, ' I'm in the humour for adventure. 
'Tis a miracle of happiness, or a message you're 
bringing me ? ' He bethought himself suddenly 
of the friend he had in Mrs. Kelly's house, and 
that Emy might well be her delegate. 

' I'm no messenger, sir, but a poor suppliant,' 
Emy cried, and threw herself quickly on her knees. 
Her hood fell back, her hair escaped ; her histrionic 
power had not failed her, truly she presented a 



82 Nelson's Legacy 

picture to excite any man's kindness. The cap- 
tain's gallantry was moved, the more, perhaps, that 
his generous potations had loosened his tongue, 
unsteadied his legs, and inflamed his eyes. 

' By Gad ! ' he cried, and drew a long breath. 
* You are a suppliant, you say ! Then whatever 
you ask is granted. But get you up from the 
floor,' and he raised her as well as he was able, 
seeing he was unsteady himself. Still holding her, 
he subsided into a chair, dragging her down upon 
his knee. Her struggle was faint, for she was 
come to ask him a favour, and durst not offend 
him. Besides, he was a personable man, and 
once on his knee her heart beat too fast for 
prudence to be heard. Falteringly she began her 
tale : 

' By Mrs. Kelly's order to-night I was singing 
to amuse the company . . .' 

' And 'twas a lucky company, by Gad ! ' 
' When there came an uproar in the street . . . ' 
' I can well believe it,' he said. ' The sound 
of your beautiful voice might well turn the head 
of. the whole mob,' he hiccoughed. Already, as 
he held her on his knee, his blood was inflaming, 
and colour came into his cheeks. She made 
to get away from him, but he held her closer. 
' Be still, be still,' he said, ' go on with your 
story. Tell me what you want of me. 'Fore 



Nelson's Legacy 83 

God ! you little beauty, you shall have it.' She 
was beginning to take alarm, and sat obediently 
quiet. 

' Someone I knew had come to London to see 
me. I don't know how he found out where I was 
staying, but he did, and he tried to come in. 
They turned him away, and he fought. And then 
the pressgang came along, and oh ! your honour, 
they stunned him and carried him away, and oh ! 
I'm the unhappiest girl in all the world.' She 
commenced to cry. 

' Then, by the Lord, who is a man of war, I've 
a mind to make you the happiest. Dammee, 
I'm no man if I can't dry those pretty eyes.' 

There was no misunderstanding him now ; 
Emy tried to struggle from the chair and 
the arms that had her so fast, although not 
roughly. 

' Don't struggle, my bird, you've flown into the 
cage ; we'll find sugar for you there. Give me 
your lips.' 

' No, no, no ! ' she cried, and almost got away 
from him. ' I came to you because they told me 
you could make the pressgang set Will free. Oh ! 
sir, do not persecute a poor girl who is unhappy, 
but set my William free.' 

' Your William,' he repeated stupidly ; ' what's 
the odds about William ? — my name is Charles.' 



84 Nelson's Legacy 

' Will Masters from Ha warden. We were at 
school together, and he sweethearted with me.' 

' And showed good taste. But I'm sweet- 
hearting with you now, child. Have a care and 
don't anger me.' He caught her closer to him, 
and now indeed she knew fear. ' 'Tis a good 
school you've been at with Mrs. Kelly, and no 
doubt she's taught you to make terms. But terms 
or no terms . . .' 

It were impossible to dwell on the scene that 
ensued. How Emy, terrified, fought for that 
which was more precious to her than Will Masters' 
freedom, and how yet she only secured the one 
at the expense of the other. Captain Willett Payne 
was not wholly to blame. It was past midnight, 
and 'twas the fashion to drink deeply ; not that 
he was past reason, but the girl was very beau- 
tiful, and came to him out of a house of accommo- 
dation. Only the finest honour is proof against 
the temptations offered by certain situations, and 
that honour is not fostered in the world of fashion 
in which moved Captain Willett Payne. Our 
poor Emy, landed by her own indiscretion in 
such a situation, could not properly, nor long, 
defend herself. And perhaps her virtue had been 
weakened by the bad example that had been set 
her. The man who entreated her and, when en- 
treaty did not serve, showed her how much stronger 



Nelson's Legacy 85 

he was than she, was a man of fashion, a man of 
parts, in the vigour of health, handsome. Perhaps 
she compared him with poor Will. It is likely, too, 
she thought of him next to Samuel Linley. And 
he spoke her fair, promised her his protection, 
Will's release, a life of ease . . . 

Emy fell, but it is difficult to apportion the 
blame of her undoing. In truth, circumstance had 
not been kind to her. 



CHAPTER V 

Captain Willett Payne is unexpectedly recalled to his ship, and 
poor Emma finds herself in difficulties and without means. 
In her extremity she applies to Dr. Graham, who befriends 
her, and then engages her for exhibition in his ' Temple 
of Health.' She meets Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh. 

Tj^MILY LYON'S first lapse from virtue had an 
-'— ' immediate effect in altering her demeanour. 
Her expressed intention, in visiting Captain Willett 
Payne's lodgings alone at midnight, had been to 
procure the release of Will Masters from the 
clutches of the pressgang. She attained her object, 
but having done so at a cost not calculated, and 
only afterwards fully appreciated, she ceased to 
display any desire to meet the early lover whom 
she had liberated. He represented the days of her 
innocency, which being ended, shut out the desire 
for his companionship. Her fall was followed by a 
half-childish, half-philosophic acceptance of the 
position. She remained with Captain Willett Payne 
at his rooms ; she considered herself under his 
protection. When she was not ashamed of her 
loss of her virtue, she was proud of the price it had 
brought. Mind and body were as yet unformed ; 

86 



Nelson^s Legacy Sy 

nothing but the lightness of her disposition was 
estabhshed. After she had become used to her 
position — and that was an affair of days, one had 
almost written of hours — she danced and sang for 
Captain Willett Payne as she had danced and 
sung at Mrs. Kelly's for the amusement of her 
guests. She also looked after his wardrobe, and 
began to manifest some of those housewifely 
qualities, the acquisition of which she owed to 
Mrs. Thomas. Although light, she was not a 
wanton ; although consent was so quickly given to 
what duress had first compelled, she could still 
maintain a shifting self-respect. 

Had the captain been willing to regulate her 
position by marriage, or had he had the means 
to make permanent provision for his mistress, 
Emy could have been regarded as one whose fall 
had a mitigating aspect. But the one idea had 
never entered his head, and the other was not 
possible for his purse. Ashore, however, and, for 
the time being, off duty, with credit at his com- 
mand, he entertained his new and delightful mis- 
tress lavishly. Neither he nor she took thought 
for the morrow. He was charmed with her bud- 
ding beauty, delighted with her obedience and 
what remained of her modesty, proud of having 
been the first to possess her. He bade her hold 
no communication with Mrs. Kelly, or the ' Abbess 



38 Nelson's Legacy 

of Arlington Street,' as it was the fashion to 
name her. He wished her to depend on him alone. 

But though he loved pleasure and his Emy, 
Captain Payne loved honour more. He had the 
Englishman's native fondness for blue water, and 
was ever eager to rise in his profession. No true 
sailor would allow a wife to interfere with his 
career in the service, and it is not to be imagined 
that such a one would be more considerate of a 
mistress. Thus it chanced that when Captain 
Payne was ordered on active service, which came 
about quickly and unexpectedly, he not only 
omitted to make suitable provision for Emy, but 
was without the moral courage to inform her of 
more than a temporary departure from town. He 
rejoined his ship, leaving her plunged in young 
and easy tears, in light and thoughtless grief 
which for the moment rendered her oblivious of 
such mundane affairs as monetary arrangements, 
and temporal provision. 

He left her, indeed, all the guineas at his dis- 
posal. To the girl who had had no experience of 
the management and prudent expenditure of money, 
the amount appeared to represent a guarantee 
against penury for some time to come ; at the end 
of which period she supposed that her King Charles 
would return with further supplies. She faced 
her future, after his departure, with the gaiety 



Nelson's Legacy 89 

which belongs to the irresponsible nature of light 
character. But not many weeks passed before 
she discovered that the stout sailor had left with 
her yet another pledge of his affection. 

The operation of the maternal instinct is one 
of the most amazing and varied phenomena of 
nature. Emy contemplated the future, as it ap- 
peared with this new complication, with alarm, 
and without any other sentiment towards the child 
she carried than aversion and resentment. She 
was little but a child herself ; and now, the period 
for which Captain Payne had paid in advance 
for his rooms having expired, she had to find her- 
self a fresh lodging. Already she knew that he 
was on the high seas, and the time of his return 
uncertain. One is fain to admire her spirit, for 
her situation was desperate, and her courage rose 
to it. She retired to the most modest lodgings, 
and disposed of many of the presents she had 
received from her lover, in order to check the 
shrinkage of her little capital. As her position 
grew daily more critical, she racked her brains to 
discover some way of lessening the distress in 
which her folly had involved her. She went, in 
thought, over the names of all those whom she 
had met since her arrival in London, and made 
the mortifying discovery that among them all 
there was not one upon whose virtuous charity she 



go Nelson's Legacy 

might rely excepting Jane Powell. And to Jane 
Powell she was ashamed to apply. The profligate 
men who patronised Mrs. Kelly's withdrawing- 
rooms would scatter guineas in the lap of any young 
woman whom their sensuality made them anxious 
to debauch, or whose attractions held when the 
charm of their novelty had fled, but they had no 
money to waste in unselfish relief of one already 
spoiled. And the abandoned women who were 
their companions in Arlington Street had nothing 
but laughter for a sister in vice, who had given 
what she should have sold, and thus reduced 
herself to a disreputable distress. To them it 
appeared that there was nothing but the 
gutter for the unfortunate whose grossest error 
lay in miscalculating the market value of her 
charms. 

And to the gutter Emy Lyon might have sunk, 
had she not in the nick of time recalled the name 
and personality of Dr. Graham. She remembered 
the aloofness of his carriage, the kindness of his 
demeanour, and, too late, the good advice he had 
given her. She heard accidentally how high a 
reputation he was building up as a disciple of 
^sculapius, and how all the world was now flocking 
to the Temple where he practised the art and 
mystery of healing. To him, therefore, Emy deter- 
mined to repair in her present distress, to solicit 



Nelson's Legacy 91 

his attendance in lier travail, and perhaps his 
assistance in securing some means of supporting 
the result. 

To his house, accordingly, Emy betook herself, 
shrinking a little from the approaching exposure 
of her condition, but hoping for an amelioration 
of her affairs with the sanguine light-heartedness 
of the young and thoughtless. The house was one 
of those that form the Adelphi Terrace, confront- 
ing the fine panorama of the Thames. A single 
step separated the narrow pavement from the hall, 
and here, on each side of the door, stood a gigantic 
porter, each near seven feet in height, to regulate 
the traffic of the doctor's clientele. Attired in 
gorgeous liveries, wearing cocked hats elaborately 
laced, and holding long staves crowned with silver 
heads exquisitely chased, these imposing servants 
at once advertised the material prosperity of their 
employer and kept in check the crowd of gaping 
people who sought to discover the identity of the 
domino-covered ladies who were his visitors. Among 
these Emy now insinuated herself, and ere long 
was admitted to an apartment, magnificently 
furnished, where she was but one of many silent 
females, carefully maintaining their incognita until 
they should be compelled to discover themselves 
sub rosa to the fashionable father confessor. 

But Emy's incognita was a question of moments 



92 Nelson's Legacy 

only. Dr. Graham recognised his visitor, and soon 
was in possession of her trouble. Unlike the 
majority of those charlatans who depend for their 
living upon the exploitation of the weakness of 
their fellow- men, Dr. Graham had a good heart 
and a sound understanding. He was sorry for the 
girl whose beauty had already engaged his admira- 
tion, and he promised to assist her, only insisting 
that she should be guided entirely by his advice 
and should place herself unreservedly in his hands. 
If he had an arriere pens^e, and thought, already, 
that she could be of assistance to him in his busi- 
ness, nevertheless it must be conceded to him 
that he behaved with great kindness to one who 
was sorely in need of it, and who, but for his 
intervention, might have found herself in so much 
worse a strait. 

When Emy left him that morning it was only 
to make the necessary arrangements for giving up 
her present lodgings, prior to removing into Dr. 
Graham's own house in the Adelphi. For this, 
after reflection, was the plan which he proposed, 
deeming it the most convenient place to attend 
her during her lying-in, and one which, being the 
residence of a medical man, would cause little or 
no scandal if the fact of her presence became 
publicly known. Here, accordingly, Emy removed, 
assuming, at the doctor's instruction, the name of 



Nelson's Legacy 93 

Emma Hart, and here, when her time was accom- 
phshed, she gave birth to a girl child. 

In narrating the adventures of one who had 
so chequered and so variegated a career as the 
Fates allotted to the heroine of this true chronicle, 
the historian has many temptations to diverge into 
the side issues presented by the lives of the 
men and women with whom she was brought 
into personal relation. Such a one is Dr. James 
Graham, who is interesting as an example of the 
empiric with a knowledge of the credulity of human 
nature, and a contempt of the passions by which 
it is swayed. He exploited the vices he had no 
inclination to share. Beauty of form made to 
him an appeal that was scientific, utilitarianism 
was the keynote of the coldness of his regard. 
Whereas our heroine, alack ! had an inflammable 
disposition, and knew little more than the mean- 
ing, and possibly not that, of the word utilitarian- 
ism. 

Dr. Graham occupied at this time a unique 
position in the town, being denounced by many 
as an impostor and a charlatan, whilst countenanced 
by the great world, who were ready to declare 
that his system had already benefited them. 
Among his distinguished patronesses was Georgiana, 
Duchess of Devonshire, whom he had recently 
treated by means of his electrical apparatus ; and 



94 Nelson's Legacy 

there were others, scarcely less highly placed, ready, 
after experience, to testify to his ability, and who 
by their patronage secured him in his position as 
a fashionable practitioner. 

But if Dr. Graham was not susceptible to the 
passions of humanity which affect the relations of 
the sexes, he was perfectly willing to play upon 
them for his own pecuniary advantage, and, 
measuring the credulity of his age to a nicety, he 
founded the famous Temple of iEsculapius. It was 
his public profession that he could teach the laws 
of life and health, prolong lives that appeared to be 
drawing to a close, arrest and repair the degenera- 
tion of a decadent society, and cure sterility. In 
his methods there was an admixture of imposture 
and of truth. He had experimented largely in 
the as yet little known properties of electricity, 
and there is little doubt that the actual effects 
of this new force were beneficial in many cases 
where the vital powers had been exhausted by 
immoderate indulgence. His treatment by baths 
was also of great efficacy, and it is easily credible 
that his system of dietetics was judicious and 
curative. 

Having, however, brought the world of fashion 
to his doors. Dr. Graham could not refrain from 
pandering to its follies. He proceeded to make 
fresh pretensions, which the moralist must con- 



Nelson's Legacy 95 

demn as vigorously as did the faculty. Three 
galleried rooms, superably ornamented, and hung 
with pictures, chiefly from the nude, were opened 
to his patrons ; crystal pillars, manufactured 
under his own superintendence, were supposed to 
contain the electrical apparatus whereby he under- 
took to restore vitality and energy. They also 
served incidentally to focus and reflect the myriad 
lights with which the apartments were refulgent. 
In one of the chambers was his most notorious 
institution, the ' Celestial Bed.' It was flanked 
by a figure of Fecundity, and crowned by the in- 
scription Dolorifica res est si quis homo dives nullwn 
habet domi suae successorein. 

The doctor attached high importance to appeals 
to the em.otional side of his patients. His addresses 
were mystical and religious in their tone, and he 
relied much upon music and painting as influencing 
the body through the mind. Solemn music 
vibrated through the air of the inner chamber, 
where the canopied bed stood in the dim light 
afforded by the stained-glass window. Oratorios 
and cantatas were employed to attune the senses 
of the votaries of the Temple to the mysteries 
about to be practised upon them ; classical re- 
presentations brought them into sympathetic rela- 
tion with this arch-priest of the art of healing. 

And it was here that Dr. Graham saw that 



96 Nelson's Legacy 

Emma might be of service to him. He had wit- 
nessed performances by her in the house of the 
' Abbess of Arhngton Street,' which he frequented 
in his early days in order to famiharise himself 
with the follies and appetites of his future clients. 
He quickly perceived, when the girl came to him 
in her distress, that her unique face and form 
would be a further attraction to his already 
alluring Temple. 

Emma, grateful for his timely benefaction, could 
not but accede to his request for her assistance as 
soon as it was formulated. It has not escaped 
general observation, and certainly it was no secret 
to Dr. Graham, that very young women acquire 
a heightened and increased beauty from maternity 
so soon as they have recovered from the imme- 
diate exhaustion of child-bearing. A new tender- 
ness is added to their expression, a more delicate 
bloom to their complexion, a subtler curve to their 
lines. Within three months from the birth of her 
daughter, and after the child had been despatched, 
under Dr. Graham's advice, to the care of her 
grandmother at Hawardcn, Emma Hart became a 
living demonstration of this truth. It was then 
Dr. Graham reaped the reward of his long-sighted 
philanthropy, and that Emma proved alike her 
gratitude and her resource. Clad in long and 
classic draperies, blue or white as the occasion 



Nelson's Legacy 97 

demanded, and set in poses to compel the atten- 
tion of even the most frivolous, she sang the 
solemn recitatives and arias which Dr. Graham 
wrote and composed, and lent the beauty of her 
voice to the spell woven by the music of the hidden 
orchestra. 

The ritual of the Temple presided over by this 
so-called ' Vestal Virgin ' quickly became the rage, 
and for one season at least the offertories brought 
a fortune to the high priest. 

But Emma was no more secure from the attacks 
of immoral men of fashion in the Adelphi than she 
had been in Arlington Street. Captain Willett 
Payne knew how to hold what he had acquired so 
long as he chose to do so, and he had made no 
secret of his conquest. Now that Emma's shape 
and beauty were restored, and she had ceased to 
be the exclusive possession of one lover, numerous 
pretenders were forthcoming to make a bid for 
the place vacated by the gallant sailor. One in 
particular persecuted her with his attentions. This 
was Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh, a baronet of 
considerable fortune, with an estate in Sussex, and, 
notwithstanding his visits to the Adelphi Temple, 
an unimpaired constitution. He had adventured 
there out of curiosity, as did so many of his 
compeers ; for the place and its attractions its 
cures and its distractions, were the talk of the 



98 Nelson's Legacy 

town. The second, and all succeeding, times Sir 
Henry went it was in pursuit of the lovely vision, 
draped after the antique, who sang in the arias 
and cantatas. 

He wooed, and he pursued ; but for some time 
both were without avail. The affectation of ritual, 
and the solemnity of the proceedings in which 
Emma was engaged under the supervision of Dr. 
Graham, set an effectual barrier between her and 
danger. 

Towards the end of the season, however. Dr. 
Graham found it necessary to effect a change in 
his affairs. Nothing is more capricious than fashion, 
and the very methods upon which Dr. Graham 
had relied to establish his great venture contributed 
ultimately to its ruin. He had spread broadcast 
advertisements of his lectures and his methods of 
treatment, and had been successful in making his 
so-called ' cures ' very widely known. Now the 
wits sharpened the blades of their intelligence and 
commenced an organised attack. A play was pro- 
duced, satirising the Temple and its priest under 
the title of A Genius of Nonsense. The doctor 
was sufficiently ill-advised to commence a criminal 
prosecution against Mr. Colman, who presented 
the piece. Witnesses were summoned on both 
sides, and a more than common scandal promised, 
when a high personage, who had been constant in 



Nelson's Legacy 99 

his visits to the Temple of -<Esculapius, and whose 
frequent use of the Celestial Bed was notorious, 
used his influence to stop the proceedings, the 
publicity of which threatened his own reputation. 
The result was the temporary ruin of Dr. Graham, 
and the deprivation to Emma of one who had 
proved a true benefactor to her. 

This was the moment Sir Henry Featherstone- 
haugh used to press his suit. Emma had no in- 
clination towards him, and had not the alternative 
offered to the establishment he promised appeared 
to her in a yet worse light, there is a possibility 
that she would have waited, with what patience 
she could muster, for the return of the father of 
her child. Not that she had much expectation 
from him, for no letter or word had come. In later 
years, when the great Admiral Nelson was captain 
of her heart, he found no difficulty in the despatch 
of missives ! But Captain Willett Payne had not 
taken his responsibilities seriously, and by the 
time Dr. Graham was compelled to break up his 
establishment and move to Schomberg House, 
Emma had become convinced that his desertion 
was for always. Her alternative to placing her- 
self under the protection of Sir Henry Feather- 
stonehaugh was as follows : 

Schomberg House, Pall Mall, a portion of which 
was occupied by Mr. Gainsborough, a painter of 



100 Nelson's Legacy 

some repute, was taken by Dr. Graham when his 
fortunes were at their lowest ebb. His character 
and temper had suffered from the injustice with 
which he had been treated, and the ingratitude 
with which he had been met. His retort was to 
reopen, in the eastern portion of the house, an 
exaggerated form of that which had been so greatly 
and ruinously ridiculed in the Adelphi. He estab- 
lished there a new ritual, which, if his critics are 
to be believed, was actually of a phallick nature. 
And here he conceived the idea of presenting a 
living figure, in its natural state, as an object- 
lesson in the co-relation of beauty and health. 
For this purpose he required a young female who 
had a perfect form, and not modesty enough to 
shrink from exhibiting it in puris naturalibus. 
Emma Hart possessed the shape ; he believed it 
possible she lacked the modesty. Nor was he 
completely wrong. Whatever history may relate 
— and there has been much controversy on this 
point — we have the best reason for knowing that 
Emma Hart did once appear as the illustration to 
Dr. Graham's lecture on ' Human Perfection.' But 
it was a solitary occasion. 

And here it is not without interest to note the 
reluctance with which a sense of modesty leaves 
the female breast. Emma, who had remained in 
a gay house, cognisant of the orgies that were 



Nelson's Legacy loi 

carried on ; who, from vanity and love of praise, 
had appeared before its frequenters, who, since 
her own undoing, had posed for her benefactor 
before a mixed audience in costumes remark- 
able chiefly for their tenuity, shrank under this 
last demand. It would have seemed that the 
sacrifice made by her for the man who had given 
her practical help in the hour of her trouble, and 
had since provided her with both board and 
lodging, need not have overwhelmed her with con- 
fusion, since the exhibition of her person was not 
required to be followed by concession of its enjoy- 
ment. But to her credit it must be placed that 
she did shrink from the task set her. In vain Dr. 
Graham represented to her that undraped women 
posed before artists, and that their pictures had 
in many cases become the admiration of the whole 
cultivated world. Once again argument and illus- 
tration failed to obtain from reason that which 
natural instinct, ever stronger than philosophy, 
had successfully resisted. 

Our unfortunate heroine may have indeed felt 
that she stood between the devil and the deep sea. 
But when her final choice was made it was found 
she had fled to Up Park, in the company of the 
aforesaid Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh. 



CHAPTER VI 

Emma, entering into the second stage of her career, is taken 
from London by Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh and estab- 
lished by him at Up Park. He treats her ill, and she is 
solaced by Mr. Charles Greville, whose intervention has 
immediate consequence. She is dismissed from Up Park, 
but a correspondence she immediately establishes with Mr. 
Greville indicates that she has found a new protector. 

AT Up Park Emma entered into the first stage 
- of that which is so inaccurately and mis- 
leadingly styled a ' life of pleasure.' 

In Arlington Street she had been only a spec- 
tator of the racket and dissipation wherewith those 
whose profession is the oldest in the world endeav- 
our to banish remorse and its attendant fear. 

She had, perchance, supposed, in her ignorance, 
that women were happy whose laughter rang 
lightly from their lips, who moved gaily in costly 
gowns, under brilliant lights reflected from the 
thousand points of the gems that gleamed on their 
naked bosoms. She did not picture them in their 
lonely hours, scanning their faces in the cold light 
of day, in o'erwhelming anxiety lest they found 
the first wrinkle that would mean their decline 
from the favour of the profligates on whose ex- 

102 



Nelson's Legacy 103 

travagance they depended for existence. She had 
no knowledge of the way in which they paid in the 
sohtude of their own chambers for the variety and 
excitement of the pubhc rooms. 

Even after her seduction she did not plumb the 
abyss. The passion of her lover burned and hurt 
her, but it kindled something in herself which, 
knowing as yet no better, she mistook for love 
and deemed good compensation for all she had 
lost. 

At Up Park she was allowed no illusionment as 
to her situation. Passion may enter into love 
and be the hallowed sacrament of chaste affection 
given and received in the permitted embraces of 
holy marriage. Nevertheless, passion is different 
from love, and not essential to it, since love can 
endure long after the natural forces are abated, 
and even persist beyond the grave. And passion 
itself is not more different from love than is lust 
from passion. 

There was no time in her career when Emma 
would not fain have respected where she loved. 
Indeed Emma's respect and Emma's love went 
ever hand in hand, and Sir Henry Featherstone- 
haugh had not the parts to evoke either. A mere 
fox-hunting squire, he treated a woman with less 
respect than a horse, and thought as little of using 
the whip to correct the one as to subdue the 



104 Nelson's Legacy 

other. The girl was naturally high-spirited and 
this was the first time she had been brought into 
personal relations with a man who made allowance^ 
neither for that nor for her sex. Her new pro- 
tector frightened her by his violence and bewildered 
her by his capriciousness. She strove nevertheless 
to please him and at first succeeded only too well. 
He was libidinous in his disposition as he was 
uncertain in his humour, given over to the pleasures 
of the table and apt to be quarrelsome in his cups. 
Nor was this the sum of her woes. Sir Henry 
was no lover desiring a solitude of two. He filled 
the house with boon companions, with whom he 
employed the days in coursing and the nights at 
cards and dice. In his first flush of pride in 
the beautiful young mistress he had added to his 
establishment he desired her attendance at every 
orgy. Decked out to please his eye and attract 
the envy of his friends, she sat at the head of his 
table, listening to bawdy conversation, pretending 
an enjoyment she did not know, encouraging 
admiration, for that gratified his vanity, and ward- 
ing off its consequence with such skill as her youth 
permitted. Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh was as 
much enthralled by her as he was capable, and his 
jealousy was given to break out upon little pro- 
vocation. It was she who was the victim always, 
for he deemed his men friends justified in en- 



Nelson's Legacy 105 

deavouring to wrest his capture from him. Emma 
learnt first to fear, and then to hate him, falHng 
rapidly into that condition of recklessness which 
is youth's only alternative to despair. 

The unhappy girl, made wretched by her days 
of humiliation and her nights of degradation, 
gradually threw away the reins of decent conduct. 
She would drink with Sir Henry's guests, dance for 
their pleasure, and gamble when gambling was the 
order of the evening. The one healthy pursuit in 
which she found herself engaged at Up Park was 
horsemanship, and in this she soon excelled, for 
she valued her life no whit, and rashness was 
the counterfeit that stood for courage. She won 
the admiration of Sir Henry by her prowess in the 
hunting-field, and came nearer obtaining respect 
from him on this account than she could ever have 
looked for by her conduct to him or to his friends. 
Yet the very masculinity of the so-called sport 
in which he encouraged her contributed to the 
deterioration of her character, and whilst affording 
an outlet for the unevenness of her spirits, it 
temporarily despoiled her of something of that 
womanliness which had been one of her most 
engaging characteristics. Her temper altered, and 
now, when excited by wine or fevered by riotous 
excess, she would confront him with a bravado 
not wholly assumed, would reply to warning or 



io6 Nelson's Legacy 

admonition with laughter and defiance, and bring 
down upon herself the rough usage which per- 
haps no longer could be considered as entirely 
undeserved. 

Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh, a Nimrod in the 
country, but a Macaroni in town, numbered with 
his acquaintances some of the politest men of 
fashion. Among these was Mr. Charles Greville, 
a cadet of the noble house of Warwick, already 
famous for his fastidious taste in virtu and the 
philosophical system of his collection of speci- 
mens of mineralogy. Being the younger son of 
his father, and therefore unlikely, in the natural 
order of events, to succeed to the title and estates 
of the earldom of Warwick, Mr. Greville had 
turned his eyes to a political career. It was the 
only one promising to a man of such high con- 
nections as he possessed the emoluments of office 
commensurate to his needs. Endowed with a 
somewhat precocious wisdom, he pursued his object 
with methodical care, and was punctilious in con- 
forming to all the customs prescribed by his social 
order. He was a familiar figure in the shooting 
parties gathered together in great country houses, 
and although no form of sport provided him with 
much personal entertainment, he was at pains to 
acquit himself creditably as became a man of the 
world. And thus, to come to the particular, it 



Nelson's Legacy 107 

happened that he was one of Sir Henry Feather- 
stonehaugh's invited guests the autumn that Emma 
Hart was the nominal hostess at Up Park. 

Mr. Charles Greville presented a strange con- 
trast to the rakes in whose company he found 
himself in the house of Sir Henry Featherstone- 
haugh. Not only was he of handsome person, 
but the easy grace of his demeanour, derived 
from noble birth and perfected by association 
with persons of the finest breeding, lent an addi- 
tional charm to his appearance and an admir- 
able dignity to his movements. He had an in- 
dependence of mind which permitted him to in- 
dulge in the most widely diverse occupations 
and to mix in the most varied company without 
exposing him to a suspicion of hypocrisy. 

Ambition, or rather might it be called aspira- 
tion, is one of the notes of a temperament such 
as was possessed by Emma Hart. She was daily 
subjected to the grossest admiration and the 
most debasing and capricious treatment, yet was 
ever conscious of virtue in her mind. Set 
amongst sensual and boorish country squires, 
whose only interests were the chase and the 
bottle, she discovered in herself, soon after she 
met Mr. Greville, a desire for the intellectual and 
refined company of the wits, artists, and musi- 
cians of whom he told her. Mr. Greville' s aloof- 



io8 Nelson's Legacy 

ness first caught her attention, as Dr. Graham's 
had done earher. The respectful consideration he 
paid to her conversation, to whom every other 
attention had been paid, and the courtly con- 
descension of his manner, led her quickly to 
idealise him. Neither flippancy nor coarseness 
flourished in Mr. Greville's presence, soon his 
critical eyes had the power to abash and silence 
her. Anon she saw pity in them, when Sir Henry 
abused or used her roughly. Within a week of 
Mr. Greville coming to Up Park her manner had 
become subdued, and she was watching for his 
approval as a dog for a bone. If his eyes showed 
pity, hers were soon alight with something warmer. 
Mr. Greville could not have achieved his great 
and merited reputation as a connoisseur of virtu 
had he not been gifted with exceptional discern- 
ment. His fastidious sense of decorum was out- 
raged by the excesses at Up Park, by Emma's 
position there, by the immoderate expression of 
Sir Henry's capricious temper, by her loveliness, 
ignorance, and all too obvious unhappiness. His 
appreciation of the fitness of things was hurt by 
her masculine prowess in the field and her pre- 
sence at the battues in Sir Henry's coverts. His 
admiration of her uncommon beauty was enlivened 
by her situation as the youthful and defenceless 
mistress of a coarse and unappreciative libertine. 



Nelson's Legacy 109 

He knew that he himself could awaken in her 
something that Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh was 
as incapable of provoking as he would be of satis- 
fying. He surprised her sensitiveness and dis- 
covered her tenderness all in a few short oppor- 
tunities of discourse. He perceived behind her 
recklessness the despair of a captive without hope 
of enlargement. 

The interest of the virtuoso once awakened, he 
resolved to prosecute his study of the fascinating 
problem offered by a character so complex. His 
visit having been timed to last a fortnight and 
such study being far more congenial to his tastes 
than field sports or games of chance, it was easy 
for him to devise explanations of his desire to 
withdraw from the company of the gentlemen ; 
the plea of necessary correspondence was always 
valid in the case of one who held a post in the 
Board of Admiralty, and was known to be so 
deeply concerned in political affairs. But, having 
discharged these duties, which he was punctiliously 
careful to do, Mr. Greville was wont to present 
himself before his hostess; who had for the nonce 
abandoned her habit of walking after the pheas- 
ants; and to entreat her, of her good nature, to 
tolerate his company for a little. 

Alone with Greville, Emma was another being 
from what she appeared with Sir Henry and his 



no Nelson's Legacy 

boon companions. Gone was the gay outlaw, 
with loose and ready laugh, and the carelessness 
that challenged affront. In her place was an 
unhappy girl needing comfort and help, and so 
rarely lovely that Mr. Greville had neither the 
heart nor the inclination to withhold either. 

She told him her story, or perhaps it was he 
who elicited it from her without her volition. 
There was enough of heart in him, for all that he 
was a man of the world and the organ was some- 
what attenuated from lack of use, to be touched 
by the relation of her first betrayal, and there 
was enough of cultivated sensibility to revolt from 
the plight to which it had brought her. Above, 
and before all, was Mr. Greville's appreciation of 
contours wholly Greek, combined with a com- 
plexion such as England alone can show. He 
likened it to milk and roses, comparing it also to 
the bloom of peaches ; he culled comparisons from 
the store of his knowledge of both ancient and 
modern writers. In the end he was fain to admit, 
with the courtly grace that so became him, that 
he failed in all his attempts to find an analogy 
for her physical charms, and that only one word 
expressed them and that word was . . . incom- 
parable. 

The ' incomparable Emma ' was naturally 
charmed with such discernment, and under its 



Nelson's Legacy in 

delightful stimulus was brought to understand, 
without offence, that however much Mr. Charles 
Greville was disposed to admire her person, he 
found her mind uncultivated, and her conduct 
occasionally reprehensible. Emma's intelligence 
was good, and now she desired nothing so strongly 
as to merit Mr. Greville' s approbation. Her days 
were spent in this endeavour and her nights in 
dreaming she had accomplished it. She did not 
perceive to what goal her thoughts were tending. 
With all her experiences of false alleys and miraged 
glades, love was an unknown country to her. Mr. 
Greville' s superiority to any man she had ever 
met was obvious ; and that ' one needs must love 
the highest when one sees it,' was an adage tinily 
inherent in her frailty. Mr. Greville began to 
occupy Emma continually and Sir Henry Feather- 
stonehaugh and the double claim he had upon her 
escaped the volatility of her mind. 

In the meantime, as the event proved, all un- 
suspected by himself, the preceptor was falling a 
victim to the attractions of the pupil. Homines, 
diim docent, discunt, wrote Seneca long ago, and 
in porches where love is the theme this is very 
certainly true. Mr. Greville' s philosophical dis- 
quisitions took ever a more personal turn, his 
essays at consolation ever a tenderer note. Sir 
Henry Featherstonehaugh, not by a long way the 



112 Nelson's Legacy 

most observant of men, began to notice his friend's 
abstraction when in only male company, and his 
glibness in pleading pressure of business as an 
excuse for withdrawing from it. But he was some 
time in attributing it to the real cause. In truth, 
his own infatuation for the beautiful Emma was 
on the ebb. He had subdued her spirit and 
brought her to a condition of obedience to his 
wishes. Before Mr. Greville's coming her reck- 
lessness and extravagance had begun to anger 
him. Now her indifference to him, which she 
was unable to conceal, her abandonment of the 
chase and the battues, and the alteration in her 
demeanour, completed what satiety had begun. 
He was already seeking an excuse for ridding him- 
self of that which was rapidly becoming an encum- 
brance when Mr. Charles Greville, by a momentary 
imprudence, put the weapon in his hand for which 
he had been looking. The occasion was a hunt 
dinner, over which Sir Henry had insisted on 
Emma presiding. Then, having drunken more 
than he could carry, he was first publicly fond, 
and then publicly offensive. Emma, under Mr. 
Greville's eye, had parried the one with embar- 
rassment, whilst the other had reduced her to 
tears, which she hurriedly withdrew to shed freely 
in the seclusion of her private parlour. 

Thither the solicitous Greville followed her, 



Nelson's Legacy 113 

anxious to commend her conduct during the try- 
ing scene through which she had passed. But the 
tears that fell from her lovely eyes, and the storm 
that heaved her snowy bosom, excited more than 
his commendation. Tenderness was little part of 
Charles Greville's nature, yet presently he found 
himself soothing her distress most tenderly. In- 
discretion was no feature of his disposition, yet 
her loveliness or her distress provoked it on this 
occasion. And soon she was crying in his arms 
that she cared not for Sir Henry, his coarseness, 
his cruelty, nor his affection ; it was only Greville, 
her dear Greville, she cared to please. It was 
after dinner, and Mr. Greville himself was no 
abstainer from the bottle . . . 

Emma's absence from the table provoked com- 
ment, and Mr. Greville's almost simultaneous dis- 
appearance could not long escape attention. 
Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh was the last to 
notice the coincidence. But as bottle succeeded 
bottle, and ribald jest and laughter began to 
exceed the bounds of legitimate hilarity, his 
temper, or his suspicions, became excited, and 
after an observation more witty than elegant from 
Sir Gregory Parfitt he lurched to his feet, and 
with a coarse expression swore he'd ' fetch the 
jade back ' and prove them all mistaken. He 



114 Nelson's Legacy 

had no doubt to find her crying in her own room, 
or in his. As for Mr. Greville, ' plague on tlie 
fellow,' he said ; ' no doubt 'twas their bawdy 
talk had drove him away.' In truth, he was 
somewhat proud of having Mr. Greville as a guest, 
and would defend him. This was when he lurched 
from the dining-room to fetch his mistress to be 
again a butt for his boon companions, and to 
exhibit his mastership over her. 

In national crises a prophet waits for word to 
be put into his mouth. In personal crises a pinch 
of sincerity spices a whole vatful of speech. 
Scratch the honour of a degenerate, and his 
veins will be found still to hold blood. Between 
each full point a truth is contained, and quod 
semjjer, quod ubique, quod ah omnibus finds corro- 
boration. All Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh's con- 
sidered addresses fled from his mind when, on 
opening the parlour door, Mr. Greville turned to 
confront him ; the much-engaged politician had 
to rise from his knees to do so, although his occu- 
pation had not been prayer. Mr. Greville rose, 
not only from his knees, but to the occasion. 

' I was venturing to entreat your good lady 
not to deprive us any longer of the pleasure of 
her society, to promise her a toast . . .' 

But Sir Henry was in no humour to be struck 
by the elegance of Mr. Greville' s address or the 



Nelson's Legacy 115 

dexterity of his wit. He seized Emma somewhat 
roughly by the shoulder, and what he said to her 
boots no repetition. Mr. Greville interfered, but 
was told Sir Henry needed no intercessor between 
him and his . . . Mr. Greville again objected, 
and this time more strongly. Sir Henry took his 
hand from Emma's shoulder to lay it on his sword, 
metaphorically, at least. And Emma slipped away 
in the confusion, much concerned for her dear 
Greville's safety, but not at all for that of Sir 
Henry Featherstonehaugh, although it was he who 
was like to fare the worse in any encounter, seeing 
he could scarcely stand upon his unsteady legs, 
nor bear himself worthily of his just anger. 

Mr. Greville was master of the epee, but not 
anxious to exhibit his prowess on this occasion. 
It is possible his conscience was not as clear as 
his wit when he tried argument to dam the torrent 
of Sir Henry's rude speech. For first he com- 
bated lightly the accusation brought against him, 
and then he defended the conduct he denied. 
His rapier was his tongue, and he plied it lightly 
and ingeniously against the baronet's growing 
sullenness. Mr. Greville had his reputation to 
consider, he had no stomach for any other fight 
in such a cause, nor for the gossip that might 
follow the event. 

' Permit me to suggest that if your mistress 



ii6 Nelson's Legacy 

were really the wanton you represent her to be, 
you, as a man of the world need not draw your 
sword in defence of an honour she does not possess,' 
was the apothegm, as, ' perhaps you will permit 
me to order my chariot,' was the argument of his 
adroitness. 

Sir Henry, whose wits were never of the nim- 
blest, felt that he was being diverted to a side 
issue, since it was his own honour that was in- 
volved, if anyone's. But he was unable to over- 
take the rapidity of Mr. Greville's dialectical 
method, and had not lost all his respect for that 
gentleman's Chesterfieldian manner. In short, he 
permitted his guest to remove in a chariot instead 
of in the funeral hearse he had stormily pronounced 
the proper vehicle for his body. 

Mr. Greville shortly made his adieux and set 
forth on the journey to his house in Portman 
Square. Not, however, without finding a method 
to convey to our heroine a reassuring message, 
and some franked and addressed papers that would 
enable her to communicate with him, if occasion 
should arise. 

No good purpose would be served by a recon- 
struction of the scene in which Emma and Sir 
Henry Featherstonehaugh were next engaged. Re- 
strained by no respect for her youth or her sex, 
wearied of the association, and angered at the 



Nelson's Legacy 117 

loss of his valuable friend, Sir Henry put no re- 
straint upon his language, and little upon himself. 

It was yet one more of the many degrading 
experiences to which this unhappy girl had exposed 
herself by the first surrender of her chastity. It 
ended in her abrupt dismissal from the fictitious 
splendour of her situation as mistress of the great 
country house, and her restoration to her former 
condition of dreadful uncertainty. 

In the first moment of emancipation from these 
gilded chains, which had often chafed her so 
cruelly, Emma was conscious chiefly of relief. 
Sir Henry had been intermittently generous, and 
had it not been for her native improvidence, she 
need not have been in any immediate alarm. As 
it was, however, she was but ill provided with 
money at this critical juncture. And she knew 
that, for the second time, she was in a fair way 
to become a mother. These considerations, as 
may be believed, proved a heavy alloy in the 
gold of her new freedom, and it was with a heart 
full of foreboding that she turned away from 
Up Park. 

We next hear of her at Hawarden. And this 
was probably Mr. Greville's counsel, which had 
reprobated more strongly than any part of her 
conduct her remissness in not acquainting her good 
mother with her situation. He had promised to 



ii8 Nelson's Legacy 

seek out Mrs. Cadogan in London, and relieve the 
dreadful anxiety under which she had no doubt 
laboured since, with Dr. Graham's assistance, the 
child Emma had borne to her seducer, Captain 
Willett Payne, had been confided, without any 
history or excuse, to the care of her maternal 
grandmother, Mrs. Kidd. 

It must have been with mixed feelings, largely 
dominated by shame, that Emma revisited the 
home of her innocence. Some part of her un- 
happy story was already known there, communi- 
cated in its beginning by Mrs. Budd to Mrs. Thomas 
of Broadlane Hall, and only too suggestively sup- 
plemented by the subsequent arrival at Mrs. Kidd's 
cottage of the unlawfully born infant. Old scan- 
dals were now revived by her appearance, dressed 
in materials which the busybodies knew that 
honesty could not afford, and wrapped, moreover, 
in a mantle of reserve, which the same charitable 
persons declared was the pride which is destined 
to fall. Emma did not betray her consciousness 
of this shower of inuendoes. She had only her 
grandmother to whom to make explanations. 

Mrs. Kidd received Emma much as she had 
received her mother in somewhat similar circum- 
stance; she had been lonely without daughter or 
granddaughter. Mrs. Kidd's love for her beautiful 
grandchild had in no way diminished because 



Nelson's Legacy 119 

Emma, like her mother, had erred. Rather had 
it increased in absence, and now was intensified 
by the instinct of pity and the necessity for 
defence. She foresaw that the situation would 
ere long become desperate, and it was she who 
first persuaded Emma to make overtures to Sir 
Henry Featherstonehaugh for a reconciliation. 
Such reconciliation might not be permanent, and 
if not that, could hardly be honourable, but it 
was worldly wise and good advice in view of the 
interesting event that was expected. 

Emma wrote to her late protector, and then, 
receiving no reply, wrote a second time. She 
could not bring herself to believe that he would 
repudiate her claim upon him for assistance during 
her coming trouble, and she wrote yet a third 
time, making a pathetic, more fervent appeal. 
His silence remained unbroken, and now, indeed, 
Emma's heart failed for fear. Seven separate 
times did she speed her cry from Hawarden to 
Up Park. But there came no word from the 
distant Sussex Downs. At last when she knew 
herself deserted and penniless, within a few weeks 
of her travail, she brought her courage to the point 
of a letter to Mr. Greville. Without a single hour's 
avoidable delay, she had his answer, a little formal, 
perhaps, but speaking a true interest, somewhat 
solacing her bedraggled pride. It determined her 



120 Nelson's Legacy 

to lay before Mr. Greville the true state of her 
affairs, and to implore his advice and help. 

' Yesterday ' [she wrote], ' did I receive your kind 
letter. It put me in some spirits for, believe me, I am 
allmost distracktid. I have never hard from Sir H., I 
have wrote 7 letters, and no anser. What shall I dow ? 

how your letter affected me when you wished me happi- 
ness. O G. that I was in your posesion what a happy 
girl would I have been. Girl indeed ! What else am I 
but a girl in distress — in reall distress ? For God's sake. 
G. write the minet you get this, and only tell me what 

1 am to dow. I am alhnos mad. O for God's sake tell 
me what is to become of me. O dear Grevell, write to 
me. Write to me. G. adue, and believe me yours for 
ever Emly Hart. 

' Don't tel my mother what distress I am in, and dow 
afford me some comfort . . .' 

Could moralist desire, could any poet of the 
emotions conceive, a more impressive picture of 
the ' real distress ' into which a female may be 
plunged who once lets go of virtue than is fur- 
nished by this exact transcript from Emma's 
letter ? Distraction and despair, destitution and 
contumely, self-abandonment to any alternative, 
entreaty, madness, and again despair — to these 
had a ' life of pleasure ' already brought Emma 
Hart. And seventeen summers have not yet 
passed over her head ! If in the ears of any rest- 
less girl, discontented with her humble surround- 



Nelson's Legacy 121 

ings, sighing for delights which she imagines, but 
has not known —if in her ears the call of the world 
is ringing, it would be well that she should bear 
in mind for one instant Emma's cry from the 
heart, ' Good God, what shall I dow ? ' 

Mr. Greville did not keep her in suspense. He 
wrote at once, deliberately, and at length : 

* I do not make apologies for Sir H.'s behaviour to 
you, and I own I never expected better from him, already 
I began to despair of your happiness. . . . After you 
have told me that Sir H. gave you barely money to get 
to your friends, and has never answered one letter since, 
and neither provides for you nor takes any notice of you, 
it might appear laughing at you to advise you to try to 
make Sir H. more kind and attentive, for I have never 
seen a woman clever enough to keep a man who was 
tired of her. It would be a great deal more easy for me 
to advise you never to see him again, and to write only 
to inform him of your determination. You must, how- 
ever, do either the one or the other. . . . You may 
easily see, my dearest Emy, why it is absolutely necessary 
for this point to be settled before I can move one step. 
My advice then is to take a steady resolution ... I 
shall then be free to dry the tears of my lovely Emy, 
and give her comfort . . .' 

The letter proceeded with other suggestions 
and promises. But the burden of it was that she 
must force an interview with Sir Henry Feather- 
stonehaugh and explain her condition. And only 
then, if Sir Henry repudiated his responsibility, 



122 Nelson's Legacy 

would he, Greville, be prepared to replace him. 
He sent her money, however, with prudent advice 
on the subject of its expenditure, and he concluded 
with an injunction to make her determination, 
and to write him again of the result. 

It was the letter of a man of the world, who 
had an eye to his personal gratification, and yet 
feared to become involved. Mr. Greville made 
no pretensions to Christian morality. He regu- 
lated his conduct by the unwritten, yet perfectly 
understood, code of laws established and obeyed 
by polite society. Thus he was sincere when he 
protested his incapability of committing an abuse 
of the hospitality of Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh 
by seducing the allegiance of his mistress whilst 
under his roof- tree. But he saw nothing irregular 
in offering the same lady his protection if, and 
when, the earlier association should be completely 
broken off. Emma had indeed won all the warmth 
of which Mr. Greville' s nature was capable. He 
did not hesitate to acknowledge this, but with 
equal candour he explained precisely how far his 
affection could carry him. ' Remember, I never 
will give up my peace,' was one of his sentences in 
his letter. There spoke the cold sensualist, happy 
to be within distance of accomplishing his desires, 
but not a whit less precise in dictating terms. 

To Emma, however, his letter came like a 



Nelson's Legacy 123 

gospel of good tidings, his sympathy like gentle 
rain upon parched soil, his pecuniary aid as manna 
in the wilderness. She kissed the paper a thousand 
times, and vowed eternal gratitude and devotion 
to her preserver, her hero. Then, resolved to carry 
out his instructions, she made preparations to 
return to Up Park, and thus mend, or end, her 
relations with Sir Henry. She did not disguise 
from herself that it was termination of the con- 
nection she desired, and not its renewal ; her 
heart had turned from him completely. But there 
was his child to be considered, and Mr. Greville's 
injunctions. For the sake of these she was ready 
to humiliate herself and offer to return to his 
keeping. If he should repudiate her, she hoped 
he would at least make some provision for the 
babe. And she herself would be free to go to 
her Greville. 

But Emma had not gauged the measure of Sir 
Henry's anger, nor reached the limit of his gross- 
ness. When she presented herself at the doors of 
Up Park, where she had reigned for a spell as 
mistress, insolent servants scarcely disguised their 
contempt and could hardly be prevailed upon to 
acquaint their master of her arrival. 

She eventually achieved an interview, although 
perhaps it would have been better for her had it 
been refused ; for Sir Henry was far gone in 



124 Nelson^s Legacy 

liquor, and first would have shown her a kindness 
from which she shrank, and then was made aware 
of her condition, and the imminence of her accouche- 
ment, at which he swore. It seemed he had never 
opened her letters, and now accused her of infi- 
delity, not only with Mr. Greville, but with other 
of his boon companions, to whose unwelcome 
attentions he had so frequently exposed her. 
Emma's protestations of innocence fell upon drink- 
dulled ears. He terrified her by his violence, and, 
laying hands upon her, with what intent she 
hardly knew, he threw her into such an agony of 
mind and body as wellnigh cost her her life. She 
got away from him with difficulty, and was helped 
by a compassionate groom to the neighbouring 
village. And there her travail came upon her in 
every circumstance that could heighten her agony. 
No effort was made to keep alight the spark of 
life that glimmered feebly in the body of the 
child of which she was delivered, and little to 
preserve her own. 



CHAPTER VII 

Mr, Greville secures a mistress and a cook for one low rate of 
payment. But desires a pupil more ardently than either. 
Emma incurs his displeasure by her high spirits, but wins 
his forgiveness by the humility of her demeanour. It is 
arranged that her portrait should be painted by Mr. 
Romney. 

IN her first letter to Mr. Greville, Emma had 
begged him not to tell her mother in what dis- 
tress she was. But there are some situations 
with which only mother-love is equal to cope, 
and Mr. Greville rightly considered that Emma 
was in such a situation now. He therefore sought 
out Mrs. Lyon, and having discovered her in the 
service of a friend whose cuisine he had often 
admired, he contrived an interview, in which he 
broke, as well as he was able, the news of her 
daughter's illness, and its pitiable cause. 

And here one must again admire Mr. Greville's 
diplomacy. Mrs. Lyon, who had been distracted 
with fear and anxiety, was so impressed with the 
dignity of his manner and the kindness he ex- 
hibited in speaking of her child, that she not only 
agreed to proceed at once to Up Park, but became 

from that day, and for all succeeding time, his 

125 



126 Nelson's Legacy 

very devoted servant. Matre pulehra jilia pid- 
chrior was perhaps in his mind when he showed 
such condescension and courtesy to his friend's 
cook. But Mr. Greville was not wont to act with- 
out dehberation, and it may well be that, seeing 
an opportunity to gratify, in the early future, 
two of his appetites at the expense of one, he 
laid himself out to please the still comely 
Mary Lyon. And that he succeeded the sequel 
proved. 

Before Mrs. Lyon proceeded on her journey 
she was made aware that Mr. Greville's interest 
in her daughter would take the practical form of 
supplying her with everything she might require 
until she was well enough to join him in London. 
It was then he added the suggestion that she 
should accompany Emma. Nobody but Mr. Charles 
Greville could have thus persuaded a mother to 
her daughter's dishonour. But he so ingeniously 
worded the invitation that it seemed he was 
merely taking mother and daughter into his ser- 
vice from motives of benevolence, to which he 
had been moved by the pathetic letter of which 
he spoke. 

Infinitely distressing was the first meeting be- 
tween mother and daughter after their long sepa- 
ration. The shock was almost too great for poor 
Emma in her present weakness, and she wept 



Nelson's Legacy 127 

uncontrollably. At once an answering wave of 
pity flooded the mother's heart, and filled every 
recess of it with love. Again she heard a dying 
voice murmur, ' Let not her weakness, nor the weak- 
ness she inherits from her unhappy father, deprive 
her of yyiaternal love. Cherish her, I beseech you, 
cherish her as you cherish my memory, and love 
her whatever displeasure she may cause you."" The 
parting injunction of an idolised husband had ever 
haunted Mary's ears and soon she was blaming 
herself for all Emma's misfortunes. It was she 
who had permitted her to come to London, and 
thus exposed so fair a flower to so bitter a blast. 
Emma's silence, that in the distance had looked 
so like ingratitude, was now easily explained as 
shame. 

There is no shame so great but that mother- 
love can solace and console it. Mary first whis- 
pered this to her daughter, and then proclaimed 
it loudly. Emma took comfort from the thought, 
comfort of which she was in sore need. She 
pillowed her erring head on her mother's breast, 
and learnt that her troubles were all past. Never 
again should she be alone in the world, Mr. 
Greville had decreed it. She and her mother were 
not to be separated, his generous help and pro- 
tection were to be extended to the two of them. 
The good news was almost too good, and mother 



128 Nelson*s Legacy 

and daughter vied in Mr. Greville's praises. If 
Emma withheld something of her heart, that 
flowed out, once and for always, like water to 
him who succoured her, it was only because her 
new susceptibility of feeling made her fearful lest 
her mother should refuse to accept as service that 
which Emma fondly hoped was meant in love. 
It was beyond the simplicity of her mind to con- 
ceive the great Mr. Greville, the adored and 
admired Charles Greville, actuated by any but the 
noblest of motives. Her mother and she were to 
be together, and both of them under his protec- 
tion. Her convalescence proceeded apace under 
such an incentive ; the gaiety of her nature quickly 
revived. Her past sorrows and present pensive- 
ness riveted her afresh to her mother's heart. By 
the time they were able to travel to London, they 
were so loving and tender together that Mr. 
Greville was charmed by the confirmation of 
Emma's sensibility. 

In all sensual men there is a duality of nature, 
and in the case of Mr. Greville this was unusually 
distinct. Not imgenerous where he would him- 
self participate in the fruits of his generosity, and 
even extravagant beyond the proper limits of his 
purse in the purchase of objects of art and virtu, 
he was at the same time parsimonious through 
principle and miserly from necessity. Sensible of 



Nelson's Legacy 129 

all carnal pleasures, and fastidious in his taste, 
he appreciated the gratification to be derived 
from a beautiful mistress, a delicate table, and a 
well-ordered home. He was secretly transported 
by the idea of obtaining all these and at the 
same time effecting a saving in his domestic 
economy. The idea had been rendered practicable 
by the expedient of taking both Emma and her 
mother into his protection and custody ; and it 
gave the irregular alliance an air of respectability 
that especially recommended itself to this precise 
formalist. 

He vacated his fine residence in Portman 
Square, where, although it was not yet even com- 
pleted, many personages of the first fashion re- 
sided, and engaged an unpretentious residence in 
the charming suburb of Edgeware Row. Hither 
Emma travelled with her mother so soon as her 
health was re-established, and there did Mr. 
Greville receive them both with a kindness which 
was doubled and redoubled as the charms of 
Emma's beauty became accentuated in his eyes 
by the skill and economy of her mother's manage- 
ment of his small household. 

Mr. Greville prided himself, and not without 
reason, upon the perspicacity which had enabled 
him, in the uncongenial atmosphere of Up Park, 
to recognise the exotic properties of the flower 



130 Nelson's Legacy 

that languished there in the indifferent care of Sir 
Henry Featherstonehaugh. It was, nevertheless, 
a cardinal point of his creed that no gentleman 
makes a display of his emotions, amongst which 
is to be included gratification. Thus, in his new 
and modest establishment in Edgeware Row, he 
did not parade the elation he really felt that his 
intelligence had served him such an amazingly 
good turn upon the present occasion, nor his grow- 
ing delight in the hidden grace and rare domestic 
virtues so rapidly developed and exhibited by the 
lovely Emma. At Up Park he had argued, from 
her restless dissatisfaction with the garish excite- 
ments of her anomalous position, a possible con- 
tentment with quieter pleasures. But now he 
discovered in addition a surprising modesty, a 
capacity for affection equal to unfailing sacrifice 
of self, and a talent for domesticity that neglected 
no detail of housewifely care which could minister 
to his comfort. At Up Park he had seen talent, 
even genius, for the alluring accomplishments of 
music and the dance. In Edgeware Row he dis- 
covered mental abilities of a high order, and an 
entirely commendable application and persever- 
ance. He found that when Emma had bewailed 
her lack of education, it had not been merely to 
move him to leniency toward errors in etiquette, 
or account for her difficulty in taking an equal . 



Nelson's Legacy 131 

part in polite conversation ; she had voiced a real 
grievance. 

Whatever Mr. Greville had intended when he 
took Emma under his protection, she quickly be- 
came so much to his taste that he set to work to 
make her more so. His coldness needed a mis- 
tress less than his vanity desired a pupil. Having 
become enamoured, although perhaps uncon- 
sciously, by the girl's simplicity and ignorant 
spontaneity, he prepared to destroy both. Find- 
ing unexpectedly in his possession a rare gem, 
nothing would serve but that it should be cut 
and polished to conventional pattern. The cut- 
ting and polishing became a hobby with him. 
Emma must have music and dancing masters, 
and he himself gave her lessons in English and 
spelling. These last were not very successful, 
for even Mr. Greville found it difficult to main- 
tain an attitude both critical and exacting when 
Emma's curls brushed his cheek in her anxiety 
to follow what he was writing for her benefit, 
and her blue eyes pleading, or laughing, assured 
him that she would rather sit on her Greville' s 
knee than be lectured by him as to when to use 
the big, and when the small, i. Emma applied 
herself to all her other studies with assiduity 
and application ; she truly had the ambition to 
improve and make herself more worthy. But 



132 Nelson's Legacy 

study with Mr. Greville she could not, because the 
true love he had excited in her, the first and only 
love of poor Emma's misspent life, hungered for 
a larger expression of it than he was capable of 
giving. She was for ever wooing him, wistfully 
or gaily, as his somewhat perverse humour sug- 
gested. She .obeyed his slightest wishes, strove 
to reach to his demands on her understanding, 
mistook his coldness for dignity, his lack of passion 
for an aristocratic self-restraint, his vanity for 
noble pride, his narrow jealousy for a fine exclusive- 
ness. She lavished on this gentleman, who used 
both her and her mother as servants to his appe- 
tites, a generous wealth of childish adoration and 
womanly warmth ; she would fawn on him for 
the favour of a caress, her liveliness leaping to his 
approval, her gaiety attuning itself to his mood. 
She would dance for him, sing for him, dress for 
him, live for him. And all of this because she 
was instinctively a lover, the true feminine of the 
word, humble and generous, uncalculating in her 
gifts, grateful for the smallest favours and sedu- 
lous to deserve them. 

The man has never existed who is not sus- 
ceptible to flattery, albeit there is nothing against 
which every man more prides himself on being 
proof. The flattery with which Emma cajoled 
her Greville was of the most insidious kind, the 



Nelson's Legacy i33 

adoring humility with which she sat at ^his feet 
being her ingenuous testimony to his superlative 
excellence. There was not a little of the peda- 
gogue in Mr. Charles Greville, and it was very 
agreeable to his vanity to instruct so lovely a 
pupil in the fine art of polite living. He com- 
mented, with approval, on the change she effected 
in her general deportment. 

' She does not wish for much society,' he wrote 
to a correspondent, ' but to retain two or three 
creditable acquaintances in the neighbourhood ; 
she has avoided every appearance of giddiness, 
and prides herself on the neatness of her person 
and the good order of her house ; these are habits 
both comfortable and convenient to me. She has 
vanity, and likes admiration ; but she connects it 
so much with her desire of appearing prudent, 
that she is more pleased with accidental admira- 
tion than that of crowds that now distress her. 
In short, this habit is not a caprice, but is easily 
to be continued.' And again he wrote : ' She 
has dropt every one she thought I could except 
against, and those of her own choice have been 
in a line of prudence and plainness which, though 
I might have wished for, I could not have proposed 
to confine her.' 

Mr. Greville had reason, indeed, to congratulate 
both his pupil and himself upon the transformation 



134 Nelson's Legacy 

she was so diligently achieving. It might have 
proved permanent, and this history never have 
been written, had he continued his kindness to 
her, been less captious, less critical, and in the 
end, less suspicious. But Mr. Greville saw ever 
himself in the foreground of his picture of life. 
He accepted her fondness and deemed it amply 
repaid by his acceptance. 

It was only to be expected, however, that ' Frail 
Emma Hart,' as she was called in Edge ware Row, 
should have the defects of her qualities. Docile 
and obedient for six days in the week, on the 
seventh she would sometimes break out into an 
outburst of petulance and capriciousness, a child- 
like ebullition of emotionalism, which was the 
very opposite of that steadiness of mind which 
Greville inculcated both in theory and by 
his own practice. She would repent quickly, 
and plead or coax for pardon. But Charles 
Greville pardoned with difficulty. His state 
and dignity demanded there should be no occa- 
sion. 

The coldness of his temper, opposed to her own 
excitability, jeopardised her position on one occa- 
sion that is worth relating. 

To reward her diligence, and also, perhaps, to 
give himself the gratification of displaying his good 
taste, Mr. Greville one evening carried Emma to 



Nelson's Legacy 135 

Ranelagh, then at its zenith as a favourite resort 
of the world of fashion. At first all went well. 
Emma was the cynosure of admiring and envious 
eyes and Mr. Greville enjoyed what was something 
like a triumphal procession. They were followed 
by the beaux and wits of the day. Mr. Greville 
was importuned for information, introduction. 
Who was his fair companion, where had he found 
her, where did he conceal her ? These and 
other questions were pressed upon him banter- 
ingly, or earnestly. And he knew exactly how to 
deal with his interlocutors. He could turn a quip, 
parry a jest, word a paradox, invent an epigram, 
as well as any man in town. With Emma on his 
arm he was cool, witty, and most diplomatically 
reticent as he made the tour of the gardens, 
pursued and surrounded by his gayest acquaint- 
ances. But he left Emma ten minutes un- 
guarded, albeit in the shelter of a box he had 
engaged for supper, whilst he busied himself 
with the wine list. And in that ten minutes 
the mischief was done that so nearly led to their 
separation. 

Emma's ardent nature was inflamed by the 
brilliance and excitement of a scene so congenial 
and her vanity was aroused by the attention of 
which she knew she was the focusing point. Now, 
not content with the admiration she had already 



136 Nelson's Legacy 

received, she sat well forward in her box. It was 
at that moment that Mr. Dennis O' Flanagan, who 
had known her at Mrs. Kelly's, recognised that she 
was not the stranger to London that she seemed. 
He communicated his knowledge to the gentleman 
nearest to him. Mr. Greville's fair incognita was 
'Emy' from Mrs. Kelly's, 'The Goddess of 
Hygeia ' from Dr. Graham's ! They called out to 
her in greeting, in recognition, in welcome. It 
would not have been Emma if she had not re- 
sponded ; soon she was leaning out of the box 
and chattering like a little bird. They had not 
forgotten her dancing, nor her singing, nor her 
imitations. Now they called upon her for both, 
for all. She was excited and but a wild girl for 
all Mr. Greville's tutoring. Her clear fine voice 
broke into the most popular song of the day. The 
gentlemen sang the chorus of it with her ; they 
were enthusiastic, and more than one of them 
was enterprising. Then it was that Mr. Greville 
came back, not realising at once the meaning of 
the augmenting crowd, nor what it was they were 
so vociferously applauding. As the mob parted 
for his coming, he caught a glimpse of Emma. 
She was standing up, in the front of the box, 
singing to those below, laughing to those nearest, 
wimple thrown back, curls escaping, her eyes 
shining, and her face flushed. 



Nelson's Legacy 137 

Mr. Greville was mortified and angered almost 
beyond measure. He hurried her from the scene 
immediately, not concealing his displeasure, but 
severely silent until they were in the solitude of 
the hackney coach. Then, indeed, he rebuked 
her with the utmost vehemence, denouncing her 
inclination to please fools in preference to re- 
specting his injunctions. His indignation was so 
hot that Emma, cold with reaction and harried 
with fear, suddenly realised the critical nature of 
the position. She broke into a frenzy of self- 
reproach, entreating again and again for his for- 
giveness. But when he handed her out of the 
carriage he was still unsoftened. It was then, on 
an impulse at once natural and theatrical, that 
she implored him, the tears streaming from her 
eyes, crying, ' You must forgive me, you must, 
you shall, you dear, dear Greville.' She flew to 
her room, and hastily rousing her mother to her 
assistance, she exchanged the elegant attire assumed 
for the Ranelagh visit for her plainest and oldest 
gown. Pursuing Mr. Greville to his study, she 
threw herself on her knees before him. 

' See ! I am a poor girl again, Greville, the 
girl you rescued, who is miserable at having dis- 
pleased you. I was carried away by my high 
spirits, the music, and the fine clothes. But I 
have locked away the clothes, and the spirits is 



138 Nelson's Legacy 

all gone.' Indeed her eyes were streaming. ' Take 
your poor girl in your arms, tell her that you 
will not cast her out. Greville, do not turn your 
face away, do not look so coldly upon me. I am 
more unhappy than when I was so distressed if 
my Greville spurn me. . . .' 

Her self-abasement salved his wounded pride. 
But not all at once, not until the night was far 
spent did he yield to her solicitations. For the 
core of his heart was as hard as a stone, and she 
might have flung herself against it in vain, but that 
she added to his consequence. Mr. Greville valued 
his reputation for taste, and it had been stamped 
and hall-marked at Ranelagh to-night ; he knew 
he would be the talk of the town to-morrow, and 
' Frail Emma ' the toast. 

Therefore he condescended to accord to the 
pleading culprit some slight reassurance, and to 
accept the familiarities with which she signalised 
her return to favour. She was permitted to fondle 
his hands and called him her dear, dear Greville, 
and to be extravagantly and exuberantly grateful 
in her own way. Accepting rebuke and warning 
in so humble and contrite a spirit, she was pre- 
sently raised from the ground to the throne of 
his knee, from which altitude she listened to a 
fresh exposition of the heinousness of the offence 
of having drawn public attention to herself. 



Nelson's Legacy 139 

and thus possibly compromised him at White- 
hall. 

What Mr. Greville feared, or hoped, came to 
pass, and Emma was the toast of the town. But 
only for a short time, for a fresh escapade of the 
* first gentleman in Europe,' George Prince of 
Wales, was brought to light that week and filled 
the public ear to the exclusion of the light amours 
of meaner people. 

The affair influenced Mr. Greville, nevertheless, 
to a project he had long had in mind. This was 
no other than to have Emma's portrait painted. 
It was Emma herself who begged that the com- 
mission should be given to Mr. Romney. Emma 
had ever an affectionate and grateful heart, and 
Mr. Romney had won his place in it already at 
Broadlane Hall, where, notwithstanding that she 
was only a nurse-girl, and in disgrace most of the 
time, he had spoken to her with kindness, and 
noticed her with particularity. Mr. Greville had 
been all for engaging Mr. Gavin Hamilton, who 
was among the few visitors to the little house in 
Edgeware Row and had already expressed his 
willingness, even his anxiety, to limn those lovely 
features and that without fee or reward. The 
guests Greville welcomed, and to whom he intro- 
duced Emma, were those whom genius distinguished 
and art engrossed, or whose sober habit and dis- 



140 Nelson's Legacy 

creet age were their chief recommendation. He 
knew enough of physics not to expose tinder to 
flame. 

Yet ^perhaps his judgment failed him when he 
included Mr. George Romney amongst those who 
were not inflammable. For he did assent finally 
to Emma's wish that Mr. Romney should have the 
commission, and it was he himself who first con- 
veyed her to Cavendish Square. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Emma is taken by Charles Greville to Mr. Romney's studio in 
Cavendish Square, and there sits for him in many attitudes, 
and also in the nude. To this Mr. Greville takes objection, 
and much accrues from the circumstance. She makes the 
acquaintance of Sir William Hamilton, who at once ex- 
presses his admiration of her, and endorses his nephew's 
taste. 

MR. GREVILLE, as has been already observed, 
was an authority on all matters pertaining 
to the fine arts, and the possessor already of a 
cabinet of pictures of no mean value. 

A great volume of water had flowed under 
London Bridge since, as a journeyman artist, 
George Rumney, as he then spelled his name, had 
painted his way to London. He now enjoyed 
considerable repute, and by many his work was 
preferred to that of Mr. Gainsborough. In any 
case there was sufficient in his favour to make 
it easy for Mr. Greville to yield to Emma's wish 
that he, and not Mr. Gavin Hamilton, should be 
chosen to paint her picture. 

Mr. Romney's studio was in Cavendish Square 
and thither Emma repaired, accompanied by Mr. 
Greville, one fine morning in April, a few days 

subsequent to the Ranelagh escapade. She was 

141 



142 Nelson's Legacy 

in her best attire, not without some trepidation 
at the prospect before her. She wondered if Mr. 
Romney would recognise in the great Mr. Greville's 
companion, in ' Frail Emma of Edge ware Row,' 
the little nurse-girl whose head he had almost 
turned by his attention in those far-away days 
at Hawarden, 

By this time Emma was well aware of her 
beauty, and accustomed to the outspoken interest 
it excited. She was doubly prepared in this 
instance, since the purpose of her reception by 
Mr. Romney was that he might study her looks 
with a view to perpetuating them on canvas. Yet 
the event was a great one in her history, and 
worthy of the emotion with which she approached 
it. In the future it was to become commonplace 
to her ; dozens of artists here and in Italy were 
to paint her for their own, her protector's, and the 
public gratification. But, with the exception of the 
amateur drawing by Miss Thomas in crayon, this 
visit to Mr. Romney's studio on April 17th, 1782, 
was the first occasion of a serious attempt being 
made to put upon canvas the charms of this 
eighteenth-century Aspasia. 

Emma was entertained by the expression of 
half-puzzled recognition on the artist's face when, 
after his reception of Mr. Greville, who explained 
the object of their visit, he started to pose and 



Nelson's Legacy 143 

consider his new sitter. It was followed presently 
by an equally apparent effort to recall any previous 
meeting. Much had happened to them both in 
the long interval and Mr. Romney's mind did not 
easily revert to Broadlane Hall. 

' I rarely forget a face,' he said whilst he was 
engaged with his easel, stepping backward, and 
then forward, in a manner he had, his head a little 
on one side, and his eyes screwed up. ' I rarely 
forget a face, and that of your fair lady would 
certainly not be an exception to my rule.' He 
contemplated his subject with an interest in which 
admiration predominated. Mr. Romney was no 
courtier, he was not even given to courteous 
speech, bearing ever traces of his plebeian birth 
and the poverty of his early circumstances ; but 
from the first Emma moved him strangely. He 
was plainly questioning his defective memory. 
' For the life of me, I cannot help thinking I 
have seen you before.' Now he addressed himself 
directly to Emma, whose roguish smile was tanta- 
lisingly reminiscent. ' I even have it in my mind 
that I have studied or painted that hair. . . .' 

Emma shook out her curls and smiled yet 
more. 

' Shall I remind you ? ' she asked, and in a 
trice stood up and played as with her apron, 
dropping a little curtsey demurely. ' If you please. 



144 Nelson's Legacy 

honoured sir,' she began, in the manner taught 
her by the excellent Mrs. Thomas. 

' By Heaven ! 'Tis the little nursemaid from 
Hawarden, the beautiful little nursemaid,' he ex- 
claimed. And soon everything was made clear. 
Emma was proud of her rise in circumstance. 
For to live under the protection of Mr. Greville 
still seemed to her a position to which that ex- 
pression could be justly applied. 

Mr. Romney had a good reputation, and Mr. 
Greville had no reason for doubting the propi'iety 
of his conduct when, as frequently happened after 
this, he left Emma alone at the studio in Cavendish 
Square. 

On this occasion, after exclamation had been 
followed by recognition, and recognition by con- 
gratulation, Mr. Greville withdrew for a short time, 
promising to call for Emma when he had left a 
card upon his uncle, who had but this day returned 
from Naples. Mr. Greville was greatly attached 
to his uncle, whose heir he was, and who was an 
ambassador at the Court of Naples. He may have 
wished to impress the painter by making his 
announcement, but in truth Mr. Romney was all 
impatience for Mr. Greville's departure, eager to 
be alone with his sitter and to employ his brush 
on the most alluring subject that had ever offered 
itself to his genius. 



Nelson's Legacy 145 

Watching intently the delightful play of ex- 
pression on Emma's animated face he led her 
to talk of her experiences, of which it must be 
admitted she gave him but a modified version, 
whilst he prepared his canvas. Presently he 
came to a pause in his attempt to rough in a 
satisfactory indication of her features, and going 
to a cabinet in which was a number of note- 
books, he selected one, and coming over to the 
dais whereon he had placed her, he gave it into 
her hand. Mr. Grevillc found her with it on his 
return to the studio. Mr. Romney was now paint- 
ing rapidly, and Emma was absorbed in the book, 
having fallen into a perfectly natural pose which 
greatly assisted the artist. The book was full of 
Hawarden sketches and reminiscences. Mr. and 
Mrs. Thomas and their daughter figured there, and 
so did the smaller children. Emma herself was 
delineated several times ; in mob cap and apron ; 
without a cap at all ; her curls disordered. There 
was Emma laughing, and Emma crying, and, what 
delighted her more than anything else, the sketch 
of a struggling group, full of movement, in which 
figured a woman belabouring a kicking boy, whilst 
another bigger boy looked on grinning and in a 
corner a frightened child in a mob cap cried with 
fear. 

'It's Mrs. Ogle,' Emma cried, 'and Will 

K 



14^ Nelson's Legacy 

Masters, and that's Joe Codgers. And I am the 
Httle girl. Oh, Greville, do look ! Am I like 
that now, but I am surely prettier ? ' 

If he rebuked her for her vanity — for never 
did Mr. Greville forget his role — he did not omit 
to congratulate Mr. Romney on the spirited nature 
of the work, and he offered to purchase the book 
from him, to please the girl who was so enrap- 
tured with it. Which offer, however, Mr. Romney 
refused, afterwards, nevertheless, presenting it to 
her, but not until their friendship and intimacy 
had become fully established. 

Now Mr. Romney carried on a long consultation 
with Mr. Greville as to the character and pose the 
painted figure of Emma should assume. Mr. 
Greville was pleased also to affect a considerable 
interest in the canvases that were lying about, or 
standing against the wall, and he promised Mr. 
Romney his continued patronage in the event of 
being satisfied with Emma's portrait, for which 
the agreed terms were fifteen guineas for a full 
length, or ten for a bust. 

The sittings Mr. Romney required for his por- 
trait of Emma were many and various. Some- 
times Mr. Greville accompanied her to the studio, 
and sometimes her mother. There soon grew 
up between artist and sitter a strange friendship. 
In the secret heart of both of them there was 



Nelson's Legacy 147 

what one may fittingly call a tendency to vagabond- 
age, a lack of reverence for conventionality, an 
inclination towards freedom of thought and action. 
Emma was linked with a man to whom conven- 
tionality was as the breath of life, Mr. Romney 
was making a strong effort to live in conformity 
with the dictates of his friends and patrons. But 
to both Emma and George Romney their condi- 
tions were unnatural, and in each other they 
found a true sympathy and understanding. 

Frequent visits to Mr. Romney's studio soon 
became Emma's chief pleasure. Her household 
duties accomplished, and her music master gone, 
she would trip singing to the gate of the little 
garden in Edgeware Row, and presently, taking 
coach, would drive to Cavendish Square, there to 
pass long hours posing, draped in classical robes, 
for a Circe, a Calypso, or a Pythian priestess ; or, 
with floating tresses and flying draperies, as a 
Bacchante or a Woodland Nymph. Each character 
she wore, she became. And Mr. Romney found 
her ever a new inspiration, not only to his brush, 
but to his imagination. He began to live in, and 
for, these hours of companionship and eager work. 
Hundreds of meetings followed the first sitting 
arranged by Mr. Greville. Mr. Greville was pleased 
that Emma had so sober a friend. Mr. Romney's 
repute as an artist grew with amazing rapidity at 



148 Nelson's Legacy 

this period, and it added to Mr. Greville's prestige 
as an art critic and connoisseur that he should 
have been a few weeks in advance of the town in 
discovering that ' the man in Cavendish Square,' 
as Mr. Joshua Reynolds called him, somewhat dis- 
paragingly, or perhaps enviously, was in a fair 
way to rival Mr. Reynolds himself in public favour. 
It redounded to Mr. Greville's credit that his mis- 
tress had been painted not once, but many times 
by Mr. Romney, and that the painter said that 
her beauty was a constant inspiration to his art. 
Mr. Greville was never fonder of his Emma than 
at this period. Mr. Romney painted her at the 
spinning wheel, and this picture of domesticity 
exemplified all Mr. Greville most esteemed. That 
she was so desirable, and yet so completely his, 
moved him to something as near conjugal love 
as his coldness could attain. By a thousand evi- 
dences she had convinced him of her devotion to 
himself, and in spite of occasional outbreaks, he 
was satisfied of her increasing self-command and 
her general prudence. In Mr. Romney' s studio, 
she met no libertines, but many men of eminence 
in literature and the arts, who spurred her own 
intelligence into emulation, and further equipped 
her to be an intelligent companion of Mr. Greville's 
solitude. He had no fear that these gentlemen 
could seduce Emma from her allegiance. He 




THE SPINSTRESS 

FROM THE ENGRAVING BV T. CHEESEMAN, AFTER 

THE PAINTING BY ROMNEV 



Nelson's Legacy 149 

encouraged her absences from Edgeware Row, 
which left him free to classify and catalogue his 
collection of minerals and otherwise indulge in 
the favourite employments of the virtuoso. Mr. 
Greville was not a man to whom the constant 
companionship of woman is necessary, even if that 
woman be an Emma Hart. Therefore, notwith- 
standing that Mr. Romney was a married man, 
who was as good as not married, since, even now 
that success was overwhelming him, he had not 
fetched his wife and children from the remote 
country home where he had left them long before, 
and in spite of the fact that Emma's ever-increasing 
beauty made her peerless among women, a delight 
to the eye, and a desire of the heart — in spite of 
these facts, and of his knowledge of human nature, 
Mr. Greville, for a long while, was oblivious of the 
possibility that the artist's interest in the lovely 
model might prove aught but professional. His 
vanity precluded jealousy. 

An artist's professional interest in female beauty 
can, however, induce him to conduct his examina- 
tion of it with a minuteness of detail to which the 
modesty of any lady and the jealousy of any 
protector might well object. Prudence in Emma's 
case was a substitute for modesty, rather than its 
synonym, and her adventurous career had deprived 
her of squeamishness. She had a frankly pagan 



150 Nelson's Legacy 

delight in her own loveliness, which, if it had cost 
her much suffering, had also won her happiness 
in her Greville's love. For still she read as love 
that which might have been more truly named 
self-gratification. 

When the time came that Mr. Romney was 
emboldened to ask, and she not averse to concede, 
although with some pretence of demurring, a fuller 
view of her loveliness, she had it in her mind 
that she thereby confirmed her Greville's taste, 
and that the exhibition was in his honour. That, 
at least, was what she said when she had to excuse 
herself to him. 

Qualified by every gift of nature to serve as a 
model for Venus, 'twas a matter of small moment 
to her whether 'twas Venus Anadyomene or Venus 
Rising from the Sea whom she was invited to 
represent. An ell or two of transparent lawn, she 
had reason to know, was a poor protection for a 
maiden's honour. Her own feeling for Mr. Greville, 
and Mr. Romney's absorption in his work, was the 
armour on which she relied. And so it came to 
pass that on more than one occasion she posed 
for Mr. Romney clad in no more clothing than she 
wore on her first entrance into the world. And it 
is at any rate conceivable that her lavish concession 
was not abused. 

Emma had forgot to tell Mr. Greville of these 



Nelson's Legacy 151 

sittings and it was therefore unfortunate that he 
chanced to pay a visit to Cavendish Square on 
one of the occasions when she was dehghting the 
artist without the draperies that might obscure 
his vision. It was a flawless model of Beauty 
Unadorned that she represented, and it was a 
pity that on this occasion Mr. Greville did not 
appreciate a picture that had so often before won 
his complete suffrance. For first the hot blood of 
a quite commonplace jealousy dyed his thin ascetic 
face and he moved forward quickly as if to take 
some definite and unguarded action. Then, his 
vanity coming to his rescue, he became pale and 
cold, a model of politeness, that struck a chill in 
Emma's heart. 

' I am not aware that I commissioned Mr. 
Romney to paint a picture of Mrs. Hart in the 
nude,' he began. ' Are you not perhaps exceed- 
ing the limits of your instructions, sir, and of my 
forbearance ? ' 

' 'Tis a study of Venus for a Judgment of Paris 
that Mr. Romney is making,' Emma broke in, 
coming forward in her eagerness from the model's 
throne. ' 'Twas this way I posed for Dr. Graham's 
lectures.' 

Mr. Greville bowed and answered ironically, 
' I am delighted you have so vivid a remembrance 
of your former condition. I should deeply regret 



152 Nelson's Legacy 

to deprive the world too long of the enjoyment of 
charms I have perhaps been selfish in attempt- 
ing to preserve for myself,' he added. And now 
his words were biting, and his voice matched them. 
' Mr. Romney will, perhaps, relieve me of the 
necessity of saying more.' 

' Oh, Greville, dear Greville, what is it you are 
thinking ? I am but a model to Mr. Romney ; 
he calls me his inspiration, but it is you, you 
only. . . .' She was frightened at his voice and 
manner, terrified almost beyond pleading, as she 
poured out incoherent words. 

Mr. Romney had to recall himself from his 
dreams of rivalling Rubens, and making Raphael 
look to his laurels, to consider the scene before him. 
Neither Rubens nor Raphael had enjoyed such 
a model. Mr. Romney had all and more than the 
artist's irritability of temperament and was ever 
intolerant of interruption when at work. At the 
present moment it was doubly unwelcome for he 
knew that a masterpiece was growing under his 
hands. His resentment was hot and spontaneous, 
and whilst, at first, it astounded Mr. Greville, who 
felt himself the injured party, it had the effect of 
mollifying his manner, and restoring some measure 
of reassurance to his mind. For Mr. Romney's 
anger was not that of guilt, nor of one who has 
stolen privileges that belong to another. It was 



Nelson's Legacy 153 

the indignation of an artist and not of a man 
that Mr. Romney betrayed. 

' Sir, by what right do you make rude entrance 
into my studio ? ' 

' I sought the lady whom I have had for some 
time the honour to protect,' Mr. Greville answered, 
with moderation. 

' The privilege ..." 

' As you will, sir. Privilege may be the better 
word.' 

' Neither honour nor privilege entitles you to 
break into my private apartment.' 

' Your public studio.' 

' And interrupt me in my immortal work.' 

' Would it not be better if Mrs. Hart with- 
drew ? ' Mr. Greville said, growing ever cooler as 
the other waxed warm. ' Now that she is no 
longer enjoying the favour of your rapt regard, 
she might care to find some other covering.' 

' Oh, Greville, dear Greville,' Emma sobbed, 
' you are angered with me. How can I bear your 
displeasure ? What is it that I have done that 
is so bad, Greville ? ' 

' Madam, the reiteration of my name is no 
longer agreeable to me on your lips.' 

Mr. Romney had much ado to restrain his 
opinion of this reply as he saw that Emma's con- 
dition of pitiable fear and her frenzied desire that 



154 Nelson's Legacy 

Mr. Greville should hear her explanations, were 
momentarily increasing. Mr. Greville was cool, 
very cool, between the two of them, but for more 
reasons than one he wished Emma would robe 
herself. 

Left with Mr. Romney, Mr. Greville was in- 
credulous, imperturbable, but always elegant in 
his demeanour. He listened courteously to Mr. 
Romney's repudiation of the interpretation placed 
upon Emma's generosity to him. 

' Beauty like that of Mistress Hart benefits and 
enriches all mankind, accentuating appreciation of 
its Creator. I tell you, sir, that figure,' he pointed 
to the glowing canvas, ' is above and beyond your 
poor jealousy. A representation of the sublime 
and perfect woman God gave to Adam in the 
Garden of Eden, it is Divine, not human, in its 
contours. Such beauty, such perfection of form, 
is for mankind, not for man. I am an artist, 
and it belongs to me, by right of my inten- 
tion, if I can immortalise what you can only 
enjoy.' 

Mr. Greville made answer : 

* I do not propose to debate the ethics of art 
with you, Mr. Romney. Mrs. Hart is, however, 
under my protection, and if I obiect to her ex- 
hibition . . ,' 

Then he caught sight of the picture on the 



Nelson's Legacy 155 

easel. A little colour came into his pale cheeks, 
and his breath was caught in his throat. 

The duality of nature that I have before 
observed as a characteristic of Mr. Greville made 
him recognise instantly, even in the midst of his 
jealousy and just anger, that it was indeed a 
masterpiece upon which he was gazing. And from 
that moment, although the interview was prolonged 
nearly half an hour, the which time it took Emma 
to recapture her courage as well as her clothes, he 
said not one word more of bitterness or reproach 
to Mr. Romney, but accepted, if not with humility, 
at least with silence, the rebuke the other poured 
upon him for his suspicions. 

' She is the most loyal, as she is the most 
lovely of her sex. You are unworthy of her if 
you doubt it. In all my intercourse with her I 
have treated her with the utmost respect, to which 
her demeanour has fully entitled her.' 

* Before Heaven, that is true, my Greville,' 
Emma interposed. She had been listening to the 
colloquy whilst making her toilet behind the 
screen. ' Oh, believe him, dear Greville ; indeed 
you must and shall believe him. He has been 
good and kind to me, no more ; I swear it ; and 
he is a great, great genius, everybody knows it 
now, and is leaving Mr. Reynolds to come to him. 
And he says it is all because of me he is being so 



i5^ Nelson's Legacy 

successful, and I am his Divine Lady. Oh, Gre- 
ville, do listen ! What does it matter if Mr. 
Romney has seen me in my figure. It is only as 
as artist he has looked. . . .' Yet she blushed. 

Mr. Greville answered her in a low voice, in his 
own inimitable way, ' You have been well taught, 
madam. I observe you have acquired Mr. Rom- 
ney's phraseology.' 

' I have acquired nothing from him but what 
is good ' — now she fell to weeping again — ' and 
for your dear interest, Greville. Believe me, in 
all the world it is only you I love, although I 
wanted to do what Mr. Romney asked, and help 
him in his great work. Take me home, Greville. 
I am tired, and frightened that I have angered 
you. And indeed, indeed you may trust me.' 

Mr. Romney was much more easily moved by 
beauty in distress than was Mr. Greville. He per- 
ceived the manifest anxiety written on Emma's 
face and realised what it might mean to dis- 
turb Emma's present relations with one to whom 
she owed much. Mr. Romney had no wish to pre- 
cipitate a crisis between them. Assuming an atti- 
tude more conciliatory than heretofore, he at- 
tempted to soothe Mr. Greville's dignity without 
forfeiting his own. 

' I do owe you, and I tender you an apology, 
sir, for persuading Mistress Hart to oblige me. 



Nelson's Legacy 157 

My passion for my art is my only excuse. As I 
have already remarked, in the whole history of 
the world, never had artist more perfect model. 
I beg you to believe that I have no thought towards 
this lady, but a most lively and intense admiration. 
I know where her heart is fixed, and that Mr, 
Greville can have no rival there.' 

Emma shot him a grateful look, and Mr. 
Greville had not choice but to accept an assurance 
given with such an air of candour, and confirmed 
by Emma's pleading eyes. He took his lovely 
charge away with him, displaying that dignity and 
ease on quitting a difficult situation of which only 
men of the very highest breeding are capable. 
Nor did he revert to the matter when alone with 
Emma. But his manner to her was colder than 
before, and he was more punctilious in his address, 
more academic in his dissertations on les con- 
venances. Emma wooed him back warmly, and 
eventually he condescended to be coldly won. She 
could not suppose that aught of rancour against 
her lingered in his mind. 

Mr. Greville knew himself to be fortunately 
situated in so far as his domestic affairs were 
concerned. The common experience of men of 
fashion who set up irregular establishments is that 
they have planted round the columnar tree of 
their lives a parasite that will cling close and 



158 Nelson's Legacy 

ever closer, until it kills the support by exhausting 
its subsistence. The price a loose woman exacts 
from the man to whom she sells her beauty is 
leave to waste his fortune. It is not unusual 
either, when this is accomplished, for her to admit 
that she has no further use for him, and to drop 
off with another, financially stronger. 

Very different was Mr. Greville's experience 
with Emma Hart. So far from adding to his 
expenses, she was the direct means of reducing 
them. Her allowance for pin money was no more 
than fifty pounds a year, and the entire expenses 
of the establishment in Edgeware Row were never 
above three times that sum. And whilst thus 
maintaining his household with the prudence and 
frugality of the careful wife, she made it her first 
object to study the personal comfort and tastes 
of her Greville, whilst keeping her fascination over 
his senses, as a mistress is more particular in doing 
than a wife, since that commonly constitutes her 
sole hold upon the man's sense of responsibility. 
All this was highly agreeable to Mr. Greville, and 
the more so because his own position was by no 
means secure. The claims upon his purse as 
member of Parliament for his family borough were 
considerable, and although a minor promotion 
secured him a small increase of emolument, his 
tenure of office was precarious. As time went 



Nelson's Legacy 159 

on he became seriously concerned as to the means 
whereby he could discharge all his obligations 
punctually and yet continue to gratify his tastes. 

Therefore, although he was perfectly sensible 
of Emma's housewifely qualities and was still 
enamoured of her personal charms, even before the 
incident in Mr. Romney's studio, he had not 
omitted to debate in his own mind possible alterna- 
tives to his present situation. Such alternatives 
included a regular alliance with some lady of for- 
tune and influence. Mr. Greville pretended to 
forgive Emma her exposure to Mr. Romney, but 
his temperament, and presently his prospects, 
forbade it. 

It was now that he received a visit in Edge- 
ware Row from his most particular friend, whose 
temporary return from Naples has already been 
announced, and with whom he had maintained a 
frequent and intimate correspondence. This friend 
was no other than his maternal uncle, Sir William 
Hamilton, a man by many years Greville' s senior, 
but bound to him in almost fraternal ties by 
identity of tastes and equal zest as virtuoso and 
connoisseur. For close upon a quarter of a century 
Sir William Hamilton had enjoyed his appointment 
at Naples, serving at the Court of the Two Sicilies 
as Ambassador to His Britannic Majesty, whose 
foster-brother he was, and of whose signal favour 



i6o Nelson's Legacy 

he had received many testimonies, including the 
ribbon of the Bath. Sir WiHiam's reputation as 
an archaeologist and man of science was world- 
wide and deserved, but it did not preclude him 
from enjoying an equal esteem as a man of wit 
and of fashion in a Court where frivolous amuse- 
ment was the first order of the day. 

Sir William Hamilton had recently been left 
a widower. His fortune, already considerable, was 
enhanced by his now coming into the sole enjoy- 
ment of property at Milford, in the county of 
Pembrokeshire, formerly in the possession of his 
wife. IVIr. Greville had always acted as the 
manager of his uncle's affairs, and Sir William now 
designed to develop Milford. It was for that pur- 
pose he had obtained leave of absence from Naples, 
and his first visit to Edgeware Row was with the 
object of interesting his nephew in his scheme. 

To Emma the name of Sir William Hamilton 
was perfectly familiar. It was constantly on Mr. 
Greville's lips and she had been taught to regard 
Sir William Hamilton reverently, as a relation who 
reflected credit on Mr. Charles Greville. His 
arrival at this particular juncture of affairs, when 
Mr. Greville was cool with her, and she ever bent 
on regaining his favour, caused her heart to flutter 
with anxiety to please one of whom her protector 
entertained so high an opinion, and she resolved 



Nelson's Legacy i6i 

to leave nothing undone for the entertainment of 
him whom her king dehghted to honour. 

For his part, Sir WiUiam Hamilton had never 
heard of Mrs. Hart, and he was vastly amused to 
discover that his nephew was so correctly incor- 
rect. He rallied him upon it, yet took the occa- 
sion to belaud his taste and good fortune. ' I 
congratulate you, my dear nephew, on such a 
priceless acquisition. You say the connection is 
two years old. How is it I have had never a word 
about the gem of your whole collection ? Did you 
think I should complain because you were no 
Stoic ? I am a man of the world, Charles, a man 
of the world ! I respect your judgment, I extol 
your taste. The combined genius of Phidias and 
Apelles, Michael Angelo and Cellini, could not have 
conceived a more perfect specimen of womanhood 
than you have here in the flesh.' 

To Emma from the beginning he was vastly 
civil, treating her with great consideration, as if 
she had been his nephew's wife, or in any case his 
equal in birth and station. 

Emma was pleased and flattered by Sir William 
Hamilton's manners and attention. If at first she 
was too awed and surprised by what she had heard 
of his exalted circumstance to do full justice to the 
liveliness of her disposition when in his presence, 
this was but a transient feeling. He took an ever- 



i62 Nelson's Legacy 

growing pleasure in her society, and she expanded 
under his appreciation, beginning to exhibit her 
parts, singing and dancing for his benefit, and 
giving Httle performances. Her imitation of the 
stiff mihtary manner of Colonel Fulke-Greville, for 
instance, her Greville's brother Robert, evoked his 
hearty laughter. Encouraged by her new uncle's 
applause, and noting that Mr. Greville raised no 
objection to her high spirits, she went on to mimic 
Mr. Willoughby and other frequenters of the house. 

Whatever his engagements, Sir William Hamil- 
ton contrived they should not interfere with his 
daily appearance at the table of the ' fair tea- 
maker of Edge ware Row,' as he soon came to 
call Emma. 

She certainly laid herself out to please him. 
But there was neither hypocrisy nor looseness in 
her overtures. She knew that Sir William Hamil- 
ton's goodwill was of importance to her Greville; 
this, and this only, it was that actuated her in 
her endeavour to make his visits to the house 
ever more agreeable. 



CHAPTER IX 

Sir William Hamilton becomes more and more enamoured with 
his nephew's mistress. Mr. Greville sees great advantage 
in an arrangement which will secure his succession to his 
uncle's estate, whilst leaving him free to contract an alliance 
in accordance with his fortune. 

WHETHER, as Mr. Greville suspected, Emma's 
exposure in Mr. Romney's studio conduced to 
the disorder, or whether it was due to some other 
cause, about this time she contracted a cold of such 
severity that both Mrs. Cadogan and the physician 
recommended by Sir William Hamilton, feared 
lest she should fall into a consumpton. Sea-bath- 
ing was ordered, and much as Mr. Greville regretted 
the expense, he had no choice but to arrange for 
the order to be carried into execution. He did 
not demur more at the expense than Emma at 
the separation. But the moment was opportune, 
for Sir William's affairs necessitated his own 
absence from town, and he wished to carry his 
nephew with him. 

Emma's weakness, and Emma's tears, made 
further impression upon the ambassador, and he 

persuaded Charles, who had put him in possession 

163 



164 Nelson's Legacy 

of his mistress's earlier history, to offer her the 
company of her Httle daughter, still domiciled with 
Mrs. Kidd at Hawarden, as a solatium for his own. 
The proposal changed the tears of reluctance to 
those of gratitude. It seemed to Emma yet another 
proof of the incomparable goodness of her Greville's 
heart, and of his affectionate solicitude for her 
happiness. She never dreamed that it was to 
his uncle the suggestion was due. She accepted 
it with joy, and even thought that this reunion 
with her child might perhaps become a lasting one. 
If little Emma were good, and had become beau- 
tiful, it was not beyond the limits of possibility 
that her generous Greville would allow her to bring 
the babe home to Edgeware Row. Then indeed 
would her cup of happiness be full. To live in 
one house together with her mother and child, 
all of them under the protection of the incom- 
parable Greville, what woman could wish for 
more ? Certainly not Emma Hart. 

Whilst preparations were being made for her 
journey to the sea she said no word about the 
plan thus forming in her mind, but excelled her- 
self in testifying her grateful love to Greville by 
the tenderest attentions to himself and to his 
guest. Sir William noted everything, daily be- 
coming more enamoured. He was not without 
experience of eraCpai, but he had seen none like 



Nelson's Legacy 165 

this ; she was eKXeKToraTcov eKkmrorepa — pulcherHma 
Dido — peerless among women. He treated her 
with courtly gallantry, which grew gradually into 
the playful affectionateness so often subsisting 
between old and young relatives. He constituted 
himself her guardian and counsellor what time 
she displeased Charles by her liveliness or levity. 
He dubbed his nephew * Pliny the Younger.' It was 
Pliny the Elder who was ever at hand with service 
and succour if the other were unduly severe. 

There was no doubt Mr. Greville knew the way 
affairs were tending. There was little that escaped 
him when his own interests were involved. His 
uncle's anxiety when Emma fell into ill-health was 
far greater than his own, and the offer to bear 
the expense if her child were permitted to accom- 
pany her came unsolicited from Sir William Hamil- 
ton. Sir William wished the proposal to appear to 
emanate from his nephew, and not from himself, 
for he had a great regard for Mistress Hart's 
delicacy, and would not for the world that she 
became aware of his knowledge of her unlawful 
motherhood. He treated her throughout with a 
consideration and respect that betrayed his grow- 
ing feeling. Already a plan was forming itself 
in Mr. Greville's mind. It was not his nature to 
act precipitately, or he might have forbidden the 
visits to the studio, which still continued up to 



i66 Nelson's Legacy 

the very day of her departure from Edgeware 
Row. Mr. Greville's jealousy was coldly dis- 
criminating, and without expression. He did not 
resent his uncle's growing infatuation and had no 
anxiety lest it be returned. But his imagination 
followed Emma to the dais where Mr. Romney 
enthroned and gazed upon the loveliness that un- 
draped itself freely for his benefit. And ever grew 
the resentment that had so strange a climax. 

No one who occupies a position on which the 
light of publicity is thrown can hope to escape 
the malice of detractors. Calumny had not passed 
by Sir William Hamilton, who was now in his 
fifty-fifth year. It protested that he had taken 
advantage of his ofBce to make bargains in the 
antiquities discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii, 
afterwards selling them to his own country at an 
exorbitant figure. It further suggested that he 
had added to the functions of an ambassador that 
of cavaliere servente to the Queen of Naples. Truth 
may have lurked in both these accusations. ' I 
am more a ministre de famille at this court,' he 
wrote, ' than ever were the ministers of France, 
Spain, and Vienna.' Yet his wife, between whom 
and himself there existed a mutual affection and 
esteem, has left it on record that he had been 
ever ' faithful and affectionate ' to her ; and she 
proved her confidence by leaving him her entire 



Nelson's Legacy 167 

estate. There is no doubt, nevertheless, that Sh- 
WiUiam Hamilton possessed the qualities essential 
to diplomacy and he made full use of them during 
the tour which he made now with his nephew. 
He had become enamoured of the ' Fair tea-maker 
of Edge ware Row,' but a transfer to himself of 
his nephew's mistress was a difficult matter, and 
needed the most elaborate negotiation. He was 
much longer in perceiving the trend of Mr. Greville's 
mind than Mr. Greville had been in realising his. 
And when they were both aware of the transaction 
each was contemplating, there was sufficient of 
decency left in them to desire to cloak its nature. 
For what it amounted to was that Mr. Greville 
possessed a work of art which his uncle coveted. 
The elder man was in a position to compel the 
sale, and the younger only concerned as to the 
price. It was for this reason that Mr. Greville 
concealed the Romney incident and the inter- 
pretation he put upon it. It was not his pro- 
vince to point out a flaw in the objet d'art of 
which he was disposing ; rather would he extol 
it as flawless, and exact the last shilling. 

Mr. Greville's financial position was not the 
most comfortable. He was still encumbered with 
his fine house in Portman Square. Under the 
testament of the late Lord Warwick he had en- 
gagements requiring two thousand pounds, of 



i68 Nelson's Legacy 

which he had not more than one moiety at hand ; 
and, apart from the expenses of his present estab- 
lishment, he was harassed by those entailed in 
connection with the representation of his family 
borough, which necessitated an annual tour in 
Warwickshire, to say nothing of disbursements to 
a corrupt electorate. The prospect was gloomy, 
seeming to offer no alternative to comparative 
poverty but a manage de convenance. 

Sir William listened sympathetically when Mr. 
Greville discoursed upon his troubles, professing 
willingness to extend any assistance in his power. 
He regretted that he had very little money lying 
idle, certainly not one, far less the required sum 
of two, thousand guineas. But his credit was 
good, and he had no doubt that his bankers, 
Messrs. Ross and Ogilvie, would find the amount 
to discharge his nephew's Humberston engage- 
ments, accepting his security for Mr. Greville' s 
bond. 

As for the future, and the manage de convenance 
at which his nephew hinted, what was that he 
had heard about Lord Middleton's youngest 
daughter ? Mr. Greville was doubtful. He feared 
she was beyond the mark for a younger son, being 
not only admirable in beauty and disposition, but 
possessed of a fortune of twenty thousand pounds. 
Of course, an assurance that he was to be his 



Nelson's Legacy 169 

uncle's heir might influence the decision of her 
guardians. Sir WilHam acknowledged it had always 
been his intention to make Charles his residuary 
legatee, and the admission was at the disposal of 
his lawyers. But if pourparlers were exchanged 
with Lord Middleton, ' what of the fair tea- maker ? ' 

This was the manner of their discourse, but it 
is proper to remark that the discussion was not 
carried on within the limits of one day. Sir 
William was too clever a diplomatist, and Mr. 
Greville too cautious an antagonist, for the matter 
to be brought to so plain an issue. They pursued 
their tour in the utmost harmony, each taking the 
highest pleasure in the cultivated companionship 
of the other, everything that concerned poor Emma 
and her future well understood between them long 
before anything definite had been said. 

Meanwhile Emma, happy in ignorance of what 
was impending, devoted herself to the care of 
little Emma, employing her spare time in pouring 
out her heart in long letters to Greville. After 
several removals in search of a lodging that should 
not be too fashionable nor too dear, she had found 
suitable accommodation in Parkgate, at the mouth 
of the River Dee, over which her own father was 
wont to gaze so longingly in his last days at Great 
Nesse. Here, in the house of a lady whose hus- 
band was at sea, she procured board and lodging 



170 Nelson's Legacy 

at a price which she deemed high, but was cer- 
tainly not ruinous. She punctually and faithfully 
reported all her movements and expenses, request- 
ing Greville's free and unrestrained opinion upon 
them. "^ 

' I bathe and find the water very soiilt ' [she wrote]. 
* Here is a good many laidys batheing, but I have no 
society with them, as it is best not. So pray, my dearest 
Greville, write soon, and tell me what to do, as I will 
do just what you think proper ; and tell me what to do 
with the child. For she is a great romp, and I can hardly 
master her. She is tall, good eys and brows, and as to 
lashes, she will be passible ; but she has overgrown all 
her cloaths. I am makeing and mending all as I can 
for her. Pray, my dear Greville, do lett me come home 
as soon as you can ; for I am all most broken-hearted 
being from you. ... I say nothing abbout this guidy, 
wild girl of mine. What shall we do with her, Greville ? 
Wou'd you believe, on Satterday we had a little quarrel 
and I did slap her on her hands, and when she came to 
kiss me and make it up, I took her on my lap and cried. 
Pray, do you blame me or not ? Pray tell me. Oh, 
Greville, you don't know how I love her. Endead I do. 
When she comes and looks in my face and calls me 
" mother," endead I then truly am a mother, for all 
the mother's feelings rise at once, and tels me I am or 
ought to be a mother, for she has a wright to my pro- 
tection ; and she shall have it as long as I can, and I will 
do all in my power to prevent her falling into the error 
her poor miserable mother fell into. But why do I say 
miserable ? Am I not happy abbove any of my sex, at 



Nelson's Legacy 171 

least in my situation ? Does not Greville love me, or at 
least like me ? Does not he protect me ? Does not he 
provide for me ? Is not he a father to my child ? Why 
do I call myself miserable ? No, it was a mistake, and I 
will be happy, cheerful, and kind, and do all my poor 
ability will lett me, to return the fatherly goodness and 
protection he has shewn. Again, my dear Greville, the 
recollection of past scenes brings tears to my eyes. But 
they are tears of happiness. To think of your goodness 
is too much. But once for all, Greville, I will be grateful, 
adue. It is near bathing time, and I must lay down my 
pen, and I won't finish till I see when the post comes, 
whether there is a letter. He comes in about one o'clock. 
I hope I have a letter to-day. Emma is crying because 
I won't come and bathe. So, Greville, adue till after I 
have dipt. May God bless you, my dearest Greville, 
and believe me faithfully, affectionately, and truly yours 
only.' 

Permission to take her child back to Edgeware 
Row v^^as what Emma was seeking chiefly at this 
time, and in all her letters she sought to create a 
favourable impression of her daughter in her 
Greville' s mind. But he, planning already how to 
reduce his present encumbrances, had no intention 
of adding to their number. He replied diplomatic- 
ally, advising that the little Emma should be sent 
to some good school, and thus trained under better 
influences than can obtain in any irregularly 
established home. Emma was grateful for so much 
concession, and, it may be, agreed with the opinion 



172 Nelson's Legacy 

that withheld more ; for the child that later proved 
of a bad disposition had already taxed her feeble 
maternal instinct beyond its strength. 

' You don't know, my dearest Greville ' [she answered], 
' what a pleasure I have to think my poor Emma will be 
comfortable and happy, and if she does but turn out well, 
what a happyness it will be. I hope she will for your 
sake. I will teach her to pray for you as long as she 
lives ; and if she is not grateful and good it wont be 
my fault. But what you say is very true ; a bad dis- 
position may be made good by good example, and Greville 
would not put her anywhere to have a bad one. I come 
into your whay of athinking ; hollidays spoils children. 
It takes there attention from there scool, and gives them 
a bad habit. When they have been a month, and goes 
back it does not pleas them, and that is not wright, and 
the do nothing but thingk when the shall go back again. 
Now Emma will never expect what she never had. But 
I wont think. All my happiness is Greville, and to think 
that he loves me. I have said all I have to say abbout 
Emma, yet she only gives her duty. ... I have no 
society with anybody but the mistress of the house, and 
her mother and sister. The latter is a very genteel young 
lady, good-nattured, and does everything to pleas me. 
But still I woud rather be at home, if you was there. 
I follow the old saying, home is home though 'tis ever so 
homely. ... I bathe Emma, and she is very well and 
grows. Her hair will grow very well on her forehead, 
and I don't think her nose will be very snub. Her eys 
is blue and pretty. She dont speak through her nose, 
but she speaks countryfied, but she will forget it. We 
squabble sometimes ; still she is fond of me, and endead 



Nelson's Legacy 173 

I love her. For she is sensible. So much for Beauty. 
Adue, I long to see you.' 

Emma's health having been at length com- 
pletely restored by the sea-bathing, she returned 
to Edge ware Row, where she was soon joined by 
Mr. Greville and his uncle. Sir William had now 
to prepare for the resumption of his duties at the 
Court of Naples. He had come to an amiable 
arrangement with his nephew by which he assisted 
the latter in his pecuniary embarrassments. The 
transference of Emma was an unwritten clause in 
the contract between them. Sir William had his 
vanity, the vanity of a man to whom women's 
favour had been easy ; he wished to woo and 
win her for himself. Mr. Greville thought secretly 
the task would prove to be beyond his matured 
powers, and that it was he who would have to 
arrange matters so that there should be no scene 
such as he knew Emma was capable of making. 
Mr. Greville was now quite decided to give up 
Emma. Her extravagant fondness over their re- 
union made no difference in his sentiments. Had 
she not owned that she visited Mr. Romney the 
very day of her return, and that he said she had 
* improved in colour, and was growing buxom ' ? 

But when Sir William had left England and 
was once more settled in his Neapolitan home, 
Mr. Greville set about to bring the matter to an 



174 Nelson's Legacy 

issue without doing too great violence to Emma's 
sensibility. The acute student of human char- 
acter will have no difficulty in following the opera- 
tions of his mind, and will be prepared to admit 
that in the case of so pedagogic a nature there was 
more of the grammarian than of the hypocrite in 
his recognition of the difference between <f)atvofiai 

eivai and <f)aivofjbal (ot, 

Mr. Greville's plan, which he had communicated 
to his uncle, and with which that gentleman was 
completely satisfied, was to dislodge Emma from 
Edgeware Row and separate her from himself 
under the pretext that such dislodgment and 
separation were only temporary, and for Mr. 
Greville's interest. A bantering suggestion from 
Sir William had been so ill received as to persuade 
him that for the moment at least her fondness 
for Mr. Greville was sufficiently great that she 
recoiled from the idea of having traffic with any 
other man. Mr. Greville had prevised this result ; 
for although she had exposed herself to Mr. Romney, 
and thus lost her value in his eyes, he did her the 
justice to admit that she had no desire to transfer 
that which she was never averse from exhibiting. 

It was incumbent upon him, therefore, as the 
first step toward his plan, to tell her of his neces- 
sity now to fulfil engagements where she could not 
conveniently accompany him. Later, he intended 



Nelson's Legacy 175 

to plead financial distress as an excuse for closing 
the house in Edgeware Row. The question of her 
accommodation in the interval would then arise, 
and in dealing with this Mr. Greville proposed to 
avail himself of Emma's often-expressed desire for 
self-improvement. Italy offered advantages of edu- 
cation in music and languages beyond those of 
any other country. In Naples Sir William Hamil- 
ton, Pliny the Elder, his own jidus Achates, and her 
true friend, would assist her in obtaining masters 
and all facilities for studying. So much of the 
problem having been thus set forth, the old pro- 
cess of solvitur amhulando might be relied upon to 
bring the parties to a point when quod erat facien- 
dum could be written at the end of the proposition. 
Such was Mr. Greville's considered scheme. 

It is tremendous to reflect upon the power to 
blind the conscience which is inherent in immoral 
desire. Satan, the cleverest of fallen angels, has 
the key to every locked heart. In tempting clever 
men he instils the most specious arguments into 
their minds, knowing how the subtlety of logic 
will titillate their intellects until they delude them- 
selves into a belief that it is reason alone that 
moves them. As he considered and developed his 
plan for accomplishing his design, Greville entirely 
lost sight of the nature of the transaction in 
which he was engaged. Neither Mr. Romney nor 



176 Nelson*s Legacy 

his own pecuniary advantage loomed large, and 
he could even regard himself as a man sacri- 
ficing his own happiness for the happiness and 
welfare of others. He sincerely wished to gratify 
his uncle, who had ever been his very good friend, 
and he knew that Emma and her mother would 
enjoy a greater consequence in a larger establish- 
ment. All this and more he showed in letters 
written to Sir William, and at last put the pro- 
posal in its simplest terms. 

' If you could form a plan ' [he wrote], ' by which 
you could have a trial, and could invite her and tell her 
I ought not to leave England, and that I cannot afford to 
go on, and state it as a kindness to me if she would accept 
your invitation, she would go with pleasure. When you 
write an answer to this, inclose a letter to her, and I will 
manage to persuade her to it ; and either by land, by 
coach to Geneva, and from thence by Veturine forward 
her, or else by sea. I must add that I could not man- 
age it so well later. After a month and absent from me, 
she would consider the whole more calmly. If there was 
in the world a person she loved so well as yourself, after 
me, I could not arrange with so much sang-froid ; and 
I am sure I would not let her go to you if there were 
any risque of the usual coquetry of the sex being likely 
to give uneasiness.' 

Stripped of all external decoration of verbiage 
Mr. Greville's action appears extremely sordid, 
even if a harsher word may not be more aptly 
applied to it. He may well have hesitated to 



Nelson's Legacy 177 

throw himself so open even to the uncle whose 
good opinion he valued. But having brought him- 
self to do so, he awaited the result with philosophic 
calm, employing the interval in making more per- 
fect the yet not quite satisfactory arrangement of 
his collection of minerals. 

When Sir William's invitation arrived, Mr. 
Greville feigned surprise, but after pretending a 
little consideration, he told Emma that he wished 
her to accept it. He explained that if he was 
to have enough to live upon, and to pay the interest 
of his debts without parting with his collection, 
he must reduce every expense, and as he would 
be obliged to absent himself for some months in 
Scotland, he would have no objection to her going 
to Naples for six or eight months ; that she need 
not fear being troublesome, as he was sure she 
would be perfectly satisfied with the degree of 
attention Sir William would from choice give her, 
while she would be very happy in learning music 
and Italian. 

Thus suddenly confronted with a scheme of 
which every detail seemed to be fixed already, 
Emma found herself without effective defence. She 
could only urge, with tears, that six months was 
an eternity, that she would be so miserable apart 
from her Greville she could not profit from studies 
to be substituted for conversation with him ; and 

M 



178 Nelson's Legacy 

that she did not want to go. She met his reasons 
with a woman's lack of reason, and essayed to 
defeat his logic with her emotion. She said she 
did not mind going again to the sea, to Weymouth 
or to Exeter, whilst he was absent in Scotland. 
But she vowed she could not, would not, separate 
herself from him by such a distance as he pro- 
posed. At first it seemed nothing would move 
her from this determination. It was then Mr. 
Greville used the last weapon in his armoury. 

' Emma, you must listen to what I have to 
say.' For she was crying and asseverating that 
she would not be parted from him. ' I am 
leaving London, and can no longer afford to sup- 
port you and your mother here. Be reasonable ; 
I have suggested a method which would relieve 
me until such time as I have paid off my liabilities, 
and can look forward to my prospects as my 
uncle's heir. In Italy, in Naples, you would be 
perfecting your voice, learning French and Italian, 
fitting yourself for my altered position.' 

He paused ; he meant her to understand the 
implication that it was because he wanted her to 
be more to him, and not less, that he was sending 
her away. A sudden flush of colour and imme- 
diate cessation of her tears told him she accepted 
the inference. She was to fit herself to be a 
better companion to her Greville, perhaps more 



Nelson's Legacy 179 

than a companion ! Hope told its ever flatter- 
ing tale. 

' But how can I live all these months without 
seeing you ? ' she exclaimed. ' No, no, let me 
stay ; I will be more diligent, dear, dear Greville, 
and will apply myself better. I will indeed. You 
shall have no more cause to complain of my idle- 
ness. Your dear presence . . .' 

' Is it mine, Emma ? Is it my company that 
you fear to miss ? I have told you that I am 
leaving London, that you cannot accompany me. 
Yet you urge me to let you remain in town. Can 
it be that it is not me, but Mr. Romney, from 
whom you dread to part ? . . . ' 

' Oh, Greville ! ' 

Yet she hung her head. For the hours in the 
studio, where Mr. Romney was never tired of tell- 
ing of her beauty and dilating upon its variety 
and perfection, were very dear to her. She had 
forgotten that Mr. Greville honoured, or dis- 
honoured her by jealousy and she wished to be 
quite candid with him. 

* I see I have hit upon the truth,' Mr. Greville 
went on, astounded nevertheless at the effect of 
his words. His suspicions were reinforced by her 
attitude. ' It is then Mr. Romney, and not I,' 
he repeated, ' who binds you to England ? ' 

A spasm of genuine anger interrupted his speech, 



i8o Nelson's Legacy 

and momentarily crossed his intention, for none 
of his interests would be served if she took him at 
his word. * It is then to Mr. Romney and his 
studio you would wish to transfer yourself when 
I leave town ? ' 

She burst again into tears. 

' Oh, Greville, how unkind ! You cannot say, 
or think, such a thing. I only live to please you ; 
indeed I have no other thought. I should be 
sorry to leave Mr. Romney because he paints so 
beautifully. I am so proud to be of use to him, 
and he has finished so few of the pictures. But 
only my Greville holds me. . . .' 

' Then obey your Greville,' he put in quickly. 

She could not combat his casuistry, nor his 
peremptoriness. Under his direction she presently 
wrote a letter accepting Sir William Hamilton's 
invitation. She wrote that Mr. Greville was going 
to places where she could not with propriety attend 
him, and she had too great a regard for his inter- 
ests to hinder him from pursuing those plans 
which it was right to follow. She desired to be a 
little more improved, and since Greville out of his 
kindness had given his permission, she would be 
flattered if Sir William would assist her in this 
project. She would start the following 1st of 
March, when Greville went to Scotland, and she 
would remain at Naples until Greville came to 



Nelson's Legacy i8i 

fetch her back in October or November. She 
looked to find the pleasure of Sir William Hamilton's 
company and conversation the most agreeable 
thing in Italy. ' I shall be perfectly happy,' she 
assured him, ' in any arrangements you will make, 
as I have full confidence in your kindness and 
attention to me.' 

So she signed the docket to her own disposal 
by Greville, and although not yet with open eyes, 
took the first steps towards the embraces of 
another man. 



CHAPTER X 

Emma, neglected and abandoned by Greville, solicited by the 
King of Italy, and pursued by the gentlemen of his Court, 
yields at length to Sir William Hamilton. 

SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON'S satisfaction was 
unbounded when Emma's missive, enclosed in 
one from his nephew, assured him that the first part 
of this dehcate transaction was accompUshed. He 
had not so small an opinion of his power to please 
the fair sex as to believe that he would fail eventu- 
ally in winning Emma's compliance to his wishes, 
when she should have grown accustomed to the 
loss of her Greville. He had but to follow the 
recommendation of Suetonius, and make haste 
slowly, to accomplish his design on what remained 
of Emma's virtue. He had no vision of how far 
his infatuation for her would lead, and what would 
be the end of their connection. He did not see 
himself at all in the role of mari to his nephew's 
mistress, far less in that of mari complaisant. Mr. 
Greville's sight was no clearer. No sooner had 
Sir William promised to make him his heir than 
the possibility of a second marriage had occurred 
to him. Since such an event might easily be the 



Nelson's Legacy 183 

antecedent of his own disinheritance, it was plainly 
to his interest to avert it if he could. And, re- 
volving the matter, he perceived quickly that the 
same obstacle that stood between himself and 
matrimony, to wit, a mistress, might well be set 
between Sir William Hamilton and the holy estate. 
It was this that settled him in parting with Emma. 

' To sup with the devil, one needs a long spoon.' 
The devil was in Emma's charm, and soon began 
to urge her forward. Her story may seem to pro- 
ceed slowly, but it never really halts, nor time 
stand still. 

Mr. Gavin Hamilton, the painter, escorted 
Emma and her mother to Italy. After a journey 
occupying two months in time, they reached their 
destination, as chance would have it, on Emma's 
twenty-first birthday. Very soon after her arrival, 
and before Sir William Hamilton had exhibited 
himself in any other light than that of one who 
wished to make her stay agreeable, she began to 
pour out her heart to Greville. 

' It was my birthday ' [she said in one of her earliest 
letters], ' and I was very low-spirited. Oh God ! that 
day you used to smile on me and stay at home, and be 
kind to me — that that day I should be at such a distance 
from you ! But my comfort is that I rely upon your 
promise, and September or October, I shall see you ! ' 

She told him that she was sure to cry the 



184 Nelson's Legacy 

moment she thought of him, and dreaded sitting 
down to write, as she wanted to show a cheerful 
face to Sir WiUiam. Although ruin depend on it, 
she vowed she must and would see him at the 
summer's end. After protestations of devotion 
that should have caused some uneasiness to him 
who was actually engaged in trafficking her, she 
concluded her letter in a manner which showed 
how simple and unsophisticated she was, despite 
her varied experience of the other sex : 

' You have a true friend in Sir William, and he will 
be happy to see you, and do all he can to make you happy ; 
and for me I will be everything you can wish for. I find 
it is not either a fine house or a fine coach, or a pack 
of servants, or plays or operas, can make happy. It is 
you that as in your power either to make me very happy 
or very miserable. I respect Sir William, I have a great 
regard for him, as the uncle and friend of you, and he 
loves me, Greville. But he can never be anything nearer 
to me than your uncle and my sincere friend, he never 
can be my lover.' 

The ambassador certainly would not have sub- 
scribed his name to any such forecast of the future. 
He was exerting the whole of his very consider- 
able powers to distract the fair creature's thoughts 
from his nephew, and to reconcile her to his own 
advances. At Up Park Mr. Greville had not been 
lacking in perception of Emma's capabilities, but 
he had not gauged them nearly so fully as did 



Nelson's Legacy 1S5 

Sir William Hamilton in Naples. He saw that she 
would rise to every occasion, it was but a matter 
of giving her larger opportunities. The wider 
horizon, the brilliant colours, the warm climate 
of this subtropical region quickly expanded and 
matured her talents. She was pouring out her 
soul in love and longing to Greville, but she was 
growing all the time in beauty and realisation of 
power and was possibly neither so unhappy, nor 
so lost without him, as she expressed herself. 
Italy quickly cast its glamour over her, and vivified 
her into the extraordinary fascination to which 
her intelligence conduced. 

At first Sir William essayed to dazzle her with 
the power and the luxury he could put at her 
disposal. He had taken for her a suite of rooms 
furnished in the English taste, and commanding 
a view of the beautiful Bay of Naples. In the 
distance Capri gleamed like a gem in the sea, 
Novo, and Nuovo, and San Elmo, seeming to 
sleep in the sunshine, were ready to burst into 
thunder of guns in defence of the beauty entrusted 
to them. The splendour of the sun, reflected in 
the sea, gave light so intense that it deadened the 
otherwise too brilliant colouring of flowers and 
trees— the garish tints, orange, madder, and car- 
mine, that sprang from the fertile soil. Vesuvius 
dominated all. By day the long smoke stream 



i86 Nelson's Legacy 

was drawn menacingly against the blue sky ; at 
night the moon sank palely behind its glowing 
lava. Emma could turn her eyes from these 
magical and natural beauties to look upon the 
crowded streets, all brilliant animation and moving 
kaleidoscopic sights. Gaudy handkerchiefs and 
ribbons, fluttering flags and gay plumes of feathers 
decorated the hats of the men ; scarlet bodices 
and petticoats, banded with gold and silver, 
adorned the women's figures ; artificial flowers, 
scarlet fringes and tassels, and gold tinsel bedecked 
the horses that drew caleches striped with bright 
red, and rich with gilt carving. Each detail in 
the ever-changing scene was a new point of 
interest to hold Emma's attention, and keep it 
from the one figure that Sir William desired her 
to forget. 

To the distractions thus presented by her 
environment Sir William added all the others that 
his invention could devise, or his resources provide. 
He was lavishly extravagant in his expenditure 
of money on any object that pleased him, although 
he resembled his nephew in parsimony where other 
matters were concerned. Emma pleased him vastly, 
and he set no limits to his generosity towards her, 
trusting her consequent gratification would incline 
her quickly to his wishes. He showered presents 
upon her, quaint trifles purchased in the public 



Nelson's Legacy 187 

market, costly trinkets chosen in the shops of 
fashionable jewellers. He bought her a camel 
shawl to take the place of some she had left in 
London, until Greville should forward these. He 
escorted her on expeditions to Pompeii and Hercu- 
laneum, and fascinated her with stories he told 
of the life of the anonymous owners of these dis- 
interred treasures, which had been the first object 
of his studies for so many years. He introduced 
her to his intimates, Sir Thomas Rumbold, the 
plutocrat from the East Indies, Prince Dietrich- 
stein from Vienna, Mr. Acton, his successor in the 
Queen of Naples' affections, and to half the fashion- 
able world, from the Duke of Gloucester downwards. 
Princes and nobles, ambassadors and ministers, the 
entire brilliant company that thronged the court 
of Ferdinand and Maria Carolina, all consented in 
paying court to the English girl, this ' modern 
antique,' that the well-known connoisseur in female 
loveliness was exhibiting to them ; this ' counter- 
part and acme of Art and Nature,' with the apple- 
blossom complexion, and fine figure, so cunningly 
hinted at beneath the loose muslin gown, lace 
trimmed, blue ribanded. Sir William saw that she 
had not a moment's solitude in which to waft one 
thought to his nephew, Mr. Charles Greville, who 
was supposed to be economising in North Britain, 
trying to satisfy his love of the classical and 



i88 Nelson's Legacy 

antique with the prospect of Modern Athens seen 
from King Arthur's seat. 

Her time was no less occupied within doors 
than without. She was given lessons in singing 
by Galiuci, and in French and Italian, history and 
drawing by other masters of the first repute. She 
cultivated her own natural gift for dancing, and 
shared Sir William's studies in botany. To all 
these pursuits she applied herself with a zeal and 
concentration that were not more remarkable than 
her success. Until her first association with 
Greville an almost entirely uneducated and ignor- 
ant girl, she now amazed every one by the quick- 
ness of her natural understanding and the variety 
of the accomplishments she so easily acquired. 

Emma permitted nothing to interfere with her 
studies which it was within her power to control. 
But she soon became aware of one source of inter- 
ruption which she was unable either to dam or 
to divert. Quis custodiet ipsosxustodes ? is a ques- 
tion, like Pilate's ' What is truth ? ' to which no 
answer has been put on record. Emma needed 
guarding from her guardian. Soon the purpose of 
his attentions became unmistakable. The warmth 
of the embraces with which he regarded it as his 
avuncular privilege to salute her would have 
warned any young female of peril, even if she had 
not been, like Emma, haud ignara mali. She 



Nelson's Legacy 189 

wrote and wrote again to Greville. She explained 
to him the predicament in which she was placed, 
the attentions to which she was exposed, his uncle's 
growing fondness. She implored a word of love, 
of counsel, she vowed her fidelitj^ There came 
no answer. She urged her youth, her loneliness, 
the temptations around her. . . . Silence, always 
silence, was Greville's persistent diplomacy, by 
which, in time, he hoped to succeed in gaining his 
freedom, and with it the price for which he had 
bartered what some men would have held dearer. 
Now it was high summer. Emma's vitality 
and courage, waning under Greville's cruel neglect 
to answer her wild appeals, were further sapped 
by the damp Neapolitan heat. She was dis- 
spirited also by her mother's doubts of Greville's 
intentions, confirming her own increasing uneasi- 
ness. She wrote again to beg for a letter, if only 
of farewell. Surely she deserved this for the sake 
of the love he once bore her. 

' I have been from you going of six months, and you 
have wrote one letter to me, instead of which I have sent 
fourteen to you. So pray let me beg of you, my much- 
loved Greville, only one line from your dear, dear hands. 
You don't know how thankful I shall be for it. . . . If I 
dont hear from you and that you are coming according 
to promise, I shall be in England at Cristmass at farthest. 
Don't be unhappy at that, I will see you once more for 
the last time. I find life is insupportable without you. 



igo Nelson's Legacy 

. . . I tel you give me one guiney a week for everything, 
and live with me, and I will be contented. . . .' 

But whilst waiting for the reply that tarried so 
long in its coming, she plunged for distraction into 
the amusements and entertainments provided for 
her by Sir William. 

Prosperity, it has often been pointed out, is a 
severer test of character than adversity. History 
has many instances to furnish of men who have 
risen from low origin to high place, making their 
way with steady perseverance to the predeter- 
mined goal, without dallying by the roadside to 
pluck the pleasant fruits, or to snatch an hour 
of the indolent ease offered by the grassy banks 
lining the dusty track. Yet when they have 
arrived at their journey's end, when success has 
crowned their unremitting effort, and they have 
attained a position where the virtuous qualities 
developed by long self-denial might have the great- 
est moral influence over their fellows, too often 
have they forsaken the principles, adherence to 
which brought them where they are, and rushing 
to a violent extreme, abused their position to 
secure self-gratification, betrayed their trust, dis- 
appointed their well-wishers, and, it may be, 
damned their souls. The historian, contemplating 
the melancholy spectacle, must condemn, but his 
heart need not be steeled against pity. He may 



Nelson's Legacy 191 

consider all the circumstances, and though naught 
extenuating, naught set down in malice, leaving 
hope that mercy may co-operate with justice. 

And if this is permissible in the case of men 
who have hewed their own way through obstacles 
and over mountain barriers, it is an incumbent 
duty in the case of a girl who, with no contribu- 
tory effort on her part, was lifted from a mud 
cabin to dwell in intimacy with a queen, and 
occupy a palace in the most frivolous capital in 
the world. This was the destiny of Emma Hamil- 
ton — to call her by the name which soon became 
hers, and by which she will be long remembered. 

Born in a smithy, reared in a three-roomed 
cottage, and at thirteen years of age the little 
nursemaid to a country squire, she was now, only 
eight years later, the cynosure of every eye in a 
corrupt and brilliant court. 

Sir William Hamilton knew his milieu per- 
fectly, knew to a fraction how far he could go 
beyond the limits of propriety without imperilling 
his position as representative of his sovereign. 
He also knew the temptations that would assail 
the lovely creature in his charge, how to meet 
them, and how to turn them to his own advantage. 
He knew, moreover, exactly what he wanted, a 
precise knowledge, lacking which many a man 
fails to get anything at all, and took the straightest 



192 Nelson's Legacy 

way towards it. He conveyed Emma everywhere 
with him, taking care to make it generally known 
that her kind favour was already pre-empted. 
Amongst the first, he showed her to the King and 
Queen, sauntering in the royal gardens in the cool 
of the evening. Prince Dietrichstein escorted her, 
and by the Queen's command led her nearer that 
Her Majesty might see the vaunted beauty more 
clearly. The Queen gazed at her, but not so 
ardently as did the King. 

' The King as eyes,' was Emma's report, ' he 
as a heart and I have made an impression on it. 
I told the Prince, Hamilton is my friend, but 
I belong to his nephew, and all our friends 
know it.' 

But what was Hamilton's nephew to Ferdinand, 
or he to Hamilton's nephew ? The King did not 
give a fico for Hamilton's nephew. Hamilton's 
friend was a very different matter, and Ferdinand 
desired to know her more intimately. He shortly 
made his intentions obvious. The ambassador was 
entertaining a diplomatic party in his Casino at 
Posilippo, with Emma playing the role of hostess. 
At the conclusion of the entertainment, when she 
and her escort entered their felucca, they found 
the royal boat moored beside it. As they were 
being rowed away. His Majesty, in a loud voice, 
bade his band of French horns ' serenade the 




LADY HAJIILTOX IN A WHITE HOOD 

FROM THE PAINTING BV ROMNEY, IN THK POSSKSSION 
OF LORD GLEXCONNER 



Nelson's Legacy 193 

English beauty.' Sir William as in duty bound, 
stopped the boatmen. The King doffed his hat 
and bowed, he spoke to Sir William and looked 
at Emma. He asked Sir William to convey to 
her his regret that he could not speak English. 
She replied, herself, in her newly-acquired broken 
Italian, thus charming him afresh. After that 
the King's music serenaded and accompanied her 
frequently and His Majesty sought her company 
as often as was possible. It was in the royal 
gardens that the last interview between them 
took place. By this time he was completely 
enamoured and pressing his suit with Southern 
ardour. He was not accustomed to be rebuffed, 
but to Emma he was less a king than a boor, in 
comparison with whom she was able to appreciate 
Sir William's more courtly and agreeable wooing. 
Emma said ' No ' to King Ferdinand and ' No ' 
again. He made to take what she refused to give. 
She forgot his prerogatives and the sacredness of 
his person, and . . . boxed his ears. She was 
immediately abashed and terrified at her temerity, 
but King Ferdinand roared out laughing, and 
vowed she ought to have been the queen, for 
oftentimes she too had treated him so. The 
scene was ended for the moment by the appearance 
of the courtiers. But Ferdinand renewed his suit 
on every public and private occasion. There was 

N 



194 Nelson's Legacy 

no doubt Emma's presence provoked him, although 
when he did not see her she escaped his memory, 
for he was devoted to the pleasures of the chase, 
and had the mind of a child, unstable and forgetful. 

Emma told Sir William of the attacks to which 
she was subjected, and it was he who devised the 
way not only to end them, but to turn them to 
her advantage. 

Emma was advised to ask the King what he 
would give her for her compliance. Once in- 
structed in her role she played it to perfection, 
teasing and inflaming him, until he would have 
promised her half his kingdom. She was satisfied 
with a little less, but must have it from him in 
writing, given under ' his hand and seal.' With 
the laughing eyes and tempting lips so near. King 
Ferdinand could refuse nothing. She dictated, and 
he wrote — laboriously, for he was no scholar, and 
the art of spelling was one that neither of them 
had mastered. But the purport of his writing 
was clear. Emma was to have Capri and a patent 
of nobility. 

Once the King had signed, however, turning 
to her with a great guffaw as he flung down the 
pen and opened his arms for the reward, she 
seized the paper, and again eluded him as she 
ran off, laughing. ' Wait, wait, wait,' he heard 
her say as she danced away, curls floating, and 



Nelson's Legacy 195 

eyes alight with pleasure at the trick she was 
playing. ' She'll be wanting my crown next,' he 
grumbled. But secretly he was not displeased at 
her lightness ; it was in so great contrast to Maria 
Carolina's methods. He thought she would have 
come back, but it was to his wife she danced, to 
Maria Carolina herself! Sir William had found a 
means to introduce her to the palace. 

Emma was a picture of Modesty Outraged, 
Innocence in Distress, when she obtained her 
audience. Sir William had had his in advance. 
What was between him and the Queen before he 
was ousted by Acton made her anxious to oblige 
him, even if she had not had her own interests 
with Ferdinand to protect. 

With every sign of genuine distress written 
upon her lovely countenance, Emma besought Her 
Majesty's protection. She produced her paper, 
and now it appeared it was unexpected and un- 
solicited. What should she do ? She was but a 
' pore girl ' : always Emma's plea. She was in 
Italy to learn singing and dancing, but if the King 
gave her no peace. . . . 

It was a coup de theatre, admirably executed. 
The Queen was moved, impressed, greatly touched. 
She embraced Emma, promised her protection and 
countenance, and that she should have uninter- 
rupted leisure for her studies. As for the King, 



196 Nelson's Legacy 

she undertook he should pursue her no more. 
Maria Carolina knew how to deal with her spouse, 
how, and when, to influence him. The paper was 
torn up, Emma heard no more of it. And the 
King went boar-hunting. The whole incident re- 
dounded to the credit of our heroine, and the 
Queen was not slow in so regarding it. A more 
remarkable effort of Sir William's diplomacy is not 
on record. Recognition by the Queen was of the 
first importance if Emma was to be accepted in 
society. Whereas the King's mortification was 
evanescent, and the manner of it could not con- 
tribute to Sir William's nor Emma's disadvantage. 
Where the King lead the way, however, it 
was the fashion to follow, and Emma had 
many admirers. Sir William Hamilton saw how 
things stood and redoubled his gifts, wooing her 
with the practised persuasiveness of his amorous 
experiences. The Queen, although she loved Acton, 
trusted Sir William Hamilton and was ever 
anxious to stand well with the only power that 
she saw between her and French aggression. Now 
she showed as much favour as was possible to his 
fair countrywoman whom he was understood to be 
educating for the stage. Any further pressure 
that was needed came in the shape of tardy letters 
from Greville. Of these two are extant, the one 
a chill epistle to Emma recommending her to 



Nelson's Legacy 197 

oblige Sir William— a Delphic utterance capable of 
interpretation to suit any event ; the other a 
candid expression to his uncle of the little value 
he set on Emma's protestations of fidelity. With 
this he enclosed all her fond letters written to 
himself, a heartless exposure of a woman's loving 
weakness, attaching to them a comment marking 
his cynic philosophy : ' Uoublie de Vinclus est 
volant, jixez-le ; si on admet le ton de la vertu sans 
la verite, on est la dupe, et je place naturellement tout 
sur le pied vrai, come fai toujours fait, et je constate 
Vetat actuel sans me reporter d vous.^ 

Whilst Sir William Hamilton was reading her 
letters to Greville, Emma, torn by emotions, was 
writing him yet another : 

' Nothing shall ever do for me but going home to you. 
If that is not to be, I will accept of nothing. I will go 
to London, their go into every excess of vice till I dye, 
a miserable, broken-hearted wretch, and leave my fate as 
a warning to young whomen never to be two good ; for 
now you have made me love you, you have abbandoned 
me ; and some violent end shall finish our connexion, if 
it is to finish. ... I always knew, I had a foreboding 
since first I began to love you, that I was not destined to 
be happy ; for their is not a King or Prince on hearth 
that cou'd make me happy without you.' 

Thus did Emma subscribe her testimony to the 
case urged by every moralist, that happiness is 
only for the virtuous. Immoral relations between 



igS Nelson's Legacy 

the sexes have the seeds of decay in them. Illicit 
love born of passion, nurtured in artificiality, ends 
with violence. ' If I was with you I wou'd murder 
you and myself boath.' In that threat did her 
indignation find expression and her association 
with Charles Greville come to an end. 

When at length Emma could no longer conceal 
from herself or from her mother the knowledge 
that the separation from Greville was to be per- 
manent, the greater part of the conspiracy against 
her had been successful. That which she had 
given to Captain Willett Payne out of ignorance, 
and to Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh in her ex- 
tremity, but which Greville alone had received 
in love, she was persuaded at last to surrender to 
Sir William Hamilton from motives of self-interest, 
and these alone. In accepting his embraces neither 
ignorantly, in desperation, nor affection, our excuses 
for her must come to an end. She gave herself 
voluntarily to this elderly voluptuary in exchange 
for the benefits he could bestow. She had become 
the courtesan, selling her wares in the best market. 
And even yet she had not realised to where that 
sale would lead. She was satisfied to be Sir 
William Hamilton's mistress, not yet aspiring to 
become his wife. 

She had her own suite of rooms at the Embassy, 
where Mrs. Cadogan was also installed in state. 



Nelson's Legacy 199 

The servants called her Eccellenza, little guessing 
how recently she had been but a servant herself. 
And now her head began to rule her mistreated 
and cooling heart. She developed ambition, and 
studied passionately in order to be the equal, if not 
the superior, of the dissolute ladies that the habits 
of the Court made prominent in Neapolitan society. 
She was not long at the Embassy before the entire 
polite world sought the entree to her receptions, 
the ' receptions,' save the mark, of ' Frail Emma 
of Edgeware Row ' ! She sang. Sir William accom- 
panying her on the viola, revealing miraculous 
powers of expression, at least so her admirers told 
her, and those who had favours to expect from 
the British Ambassador. From others there were 
comments about the correctness of her ear. But 
prosperity inevitably brings envy, and Emma's 
detractors were few at this period, which preceded 
her zenith by some months. She danced the 
tarantella with a lightness almost incredible, 
and exhibited her ' Attitudes,' a form of tableau 
vivant devised by herself and quite unique at 
that time. Clad in flowing draperies, she took 
up her position before a pair of screens, where, 
illumined by torches, she showed by change 
of posture, by gesture and expression, every 
mood and emotion known to human nature. She 
was in turn the incarnation of Dignity, Suppli- 



200 Nelson's Legacy 

cation, Indolence, Gravity, Distress, Playfulness, 
Pleasing Torment, Abandonment, Remorse, Temp- 
tation, Doom, Agony. She held her audience 
spell-bound, and they justly called her ' inimitable,' 
and ' incomparable.' 

Nor was her success confined within the limits 
where propriety might well have held her. As the 
mistress, not the wife, of the English Ambassador, 
Emma could not be received openly at Court. 
But the Queen was already on terms of private 
friendship with her, and held up her domestic 
behaviour as an example to the Neapolitan 
ladies. It was, however, Her Grace of Argyll, 
famous as *the beautiful Miss Gunning,' who turned 
Emma's head entirely. The daughter of a poor 
Irish gentleman, of no estate or consequence, the 
Duchess of Argyll saw no reason why Emma should 
not aspire to equal rank with her own. She was 
a generous and emotional creature, sweet-natured 
and impulsive, but lacking education, and of an 
almost abnormal stupidity. It was she who had 
lisped gushingly to King George, already appre- 
hensive about his health, how she and her sister 
' longed to witness a coronation.' Many another 
hetise about them was rife in society. Neither pru- 
dence nor fitness dictated to her why Sir William 
should hesitate to regulate Emma's position by 
marriage, and she not only encouraged Emma to 



Nelson's Legacy 201 

this ambition, but employed her own high social 
influence to further the same object. 

Emma had not mixed with the beauties 
admitted into the cosmopolitan society of Naples 
without learning something of the pressure that 
can be exercised upon an elderly lover by a young, 
lovely, and accomplished woman. The idea for 
which the Duchess of Argyll was primarily respon- 
sible began to germinate. Sir William commenced 
by laughing at it. He knew the rigid principles 
of his Sovereign, and that his consort was in- 
tolerant of the least impropriety. Such a marriage, 
instead of minimizing the evil of a guilty liaison^ 
might give offence in high places, and perhaps 
ruin and terminate his own career. The suggestion 
nevertheless had its allurement, marriage would 
bind to him for ever this much-sought-after, young, 
and beautiful creature. But at first he laughed, 
and turned it away lightly, telling her he could 
not love her better, nor she have more conse- 
quence. It is not all at once that such affairs 
are settled. Emma was happy, proud of her salon, 
her large circle of friends, and Sir William's 
patent devotion. She might have abandoned her 
ill-advised attempt to rise any higher, notwith- 
standing the duchess, had not an incident occurred 
that drove her position home to her, and made 
her resolute. 



202 Nelson's Legacy 

An old acquaintance, Mr. Heneage Legge, 
whom Greville had admitted to the house in Edge- 
ware Row when that estabhshment was first set 
up, arrived in Naples with his wife, who was 
momentarily awaiting her first confinement. Sir 
William waited upon him, and, willing to endorse 
and supplement such friendliness, Emma offered 
her company and services to the lady in her inter- 
esting situation. She was deeply mortified by the 
prompt and unhesitating refusal of her proffered 
attention. Mr. Legge, on the part of his wife, 
acknowledged the kindness of the intention, but 
said Mrs. Legge was in no need of company. Such 
company was the implication ; but he had no 
wish to offend the ambassador, of whose conduct 
in the whole matter, however, he wrote home in 
no measured terms. 

Emma was furious. The temper that ' nearly 
burst her girdle,' to use her own vivid expression, 
the tears of anger, tears of shame, passion of in- 
vective, passion of pleading, certainly moved Sir 
William. Gifts and caresses provided no remedy. 
There was but one way to save her from such 
humiliation, and to that point Sir William was 
all the time being led, or driven. 



CHAPTER XI 

Sir William Hamilton brings Emma to London to ask the con- 
sent of the King to his marriage. But in an interview with 
Greville she offers to give up all her prospects if he will 
restore her to her old place in his heart. Mr. Greville 
rejects the proposal and accuses her of having been unfaith- 
ful to him with Mr. Romney. She seeks Mr. Romney, 
whose mind is already clouded, and who dreams that she 
has been his mistress, and not only his inspiration. She 
marries Sir William Hamilton. 

TT is a frequent experience in human life that, 
-*• contrary to its first seeming, a check in an upward 
progress is in reahty an advantage to the climber, 
since it provokes an access of energy on his part 
which carries him to the summit with a speed 
which otherwise he might not have attained. This 
was Emma's experience in her present march to 
the goal of matrimony. 

She had come to acquiesce in her existing situa- 
tion as Sir WiUiam's mistress, different as it was 
from the situation of other men's mistresses, in 
that she was smiled upon by a queen, and admitted 
into the society of such irreproachable great ladies 
as the Duchess of Argyll. Emma's salon at the 

Embassy was thronged nightly by English and 

203 



204 Nelson's Legacy 

Neapolitans of the highest rank, and, had she 
wished to change her position, or vary it, the oppor- 
tunity would have been afforded her. But Emma, 
although frail, was temperate, that is to say she was 
instinctively a monogamist. Her present protector 
sufficed for the moment both her ambitions and 
her emotions. She professed, perhaps she felt, a 
great affection for him. Her footing, such as it 
was, in Italian society was secure. Marriage could 
give her little she did not already possess, and her 
native common sense and knowledge of the world 
did not allow her to ignore, when it was put before 
her, that such a marriage might entail consequences 
upon Sir William Hamilton for which she, too, 
would have to suffer. 

All these considerations, however, were swept 
away by the torrent of mortification and anger 
let loose in her mind by the affront offered to her 
by the wife of the Honourable Heneage Legge. 
Marriage was the only possible way to avert its 
repetition. Now she began to importune Sir 
William ; anon she hastened to Her Grace of 
Argyll and besought her to bring all her great 
influence upon the ambassador to this effect. 
The duchess was perfectly willing, and enlisted as 
an ally Lord Bristol, with whom Sir William had 
been on terms of peculiar intimacy since boyhood. 
Lord Bristol, after a few interviews with Emma, 



Nelson's Legacy 205 

proved himself a single-hearted partisan. He was 
ever a man of eccentric conduct and insisted 
upon privacy for these interviews. As the Lord 
Bishop of Derry he might have adduced spiritual 
and ecclesiastical reasons for urging his old friend 
to renounce the life in sin which he was leading 
and causing Emma to lead. But, knowing his 
man and, it may be, attaching little importance 
to the rigid morality required of its sons by the 
Church, he preferred to make a different appeal. 
What inducement Emma offered Lord Bristol for 
his argument may be easily conceived. Certainly 
the correspondence between them, that came to 
light later, gives reason to suppose that Sir William 
Hamilton was not to be blamed for inconsistency 
when he accepted the advice and discarded the 
friendship that proffered it. 

Thus reinforced, Emma pressed the siege closer, 
and had the satisfaction of seeing Sir William's 
resistance growing daily weaker. There were, in- 
deed, only two persons whose disapproval he 
actually feared — his foster-brother and master, the 
King of England, and his nephew, Mr. Charles 
Greville. It was indeed necessary to obtain the 
consent of the former, and he made this clear to 
Emma when at length he gave her the conditional 
promise which so exalted her. 

With regard to Mr. Greville, he stipulated for 



2o6 Nelson's Legacy 

secrecy until the King's consent should have been 
obtained. And Emma was glad to oblige him in 
this matter. In spite of the terms on which she 
was living with Sir William, and all her distractions, 
she could not deceive herself into believing that 
she had forgotten Greville. She was not a little 
apprehensive of the manner and the temper in 
which he might receive the surprising intelligence 
of her approaching marriage to Sir William. But 
that she should see him once again, and soon, 
threw into the background even the new state 
that was to be hers. 

The idea that in advancing age and amorous- 
ness his uncle might be persuaded to a marriage 
with Emma had presented itself to Mr. Greville's 
mind only to be discarded. But Mr. Greville did 
not know the new Emma. His knowledge was 
of a wild, emotional girl whose every action he 
could direct. He took no account of what effect 
his own conduct might have had upon her 
character, the conduct of the man she loved 
and believed in, and who had trafficked with 
and tricked her. For by now she knew the 
nature of the agreement between him and his 
uncle. 

Mr. Legge wrote again to Mr. Greville at some 
length, recording his impressions of the establish- 
ment at the Embassy, of which, indeed, he had 



Nelson's Legacy 207 

not hesitated to express an opinion to the 
ambassador himself. 

' Her influence over him ' [he told Greville], ' exceeds 
all belief. . . . The language of both parties, who always 
spoke in the plural number — we, us, and ours — staggered 
me at first, but soon made me determined to speak only 
to him on the subject, when he assured me, what I con- 
fess I was most happy to hear, that he was not married ; 
but flung out some hints of doing justice to her good 
behaviour, if his public situation did not forbid him to 
consider himself an independent man. She gives every 
one to understand that he is going to England to solicit 
the King's consent to marry her. ... I am confident she 
will gain her point, against which it is the duty of every 
friend to strengthen his mind as much as possible. And 
she will be satisfied with no argument but the King's 
absolute refusal of his approbation. ... I have all 
along told her that she could never change her situation, 
and that she was a happier woman as Mrs. H. than she 
would be as Lady H., when more reserved behaviour being 
necessary, she would be deprived of half her amusements.' 

Mr. Greville was very ready to believe that 
Emma was not the woman to disagree with Mr. 
Legge's opinion of the advantages of mistress over 
wife, notwithstanding that she might do her 
utmost to persuade everybody that Sir William 
meant to make an honest woman of her. But as 
he did not believe that his alter ego would depart 
so far from the usages of the polite world, and 
that even if he wanted to, the royal consent would 



2o8 Nelson's Legacy 

not be forthcoming to so scandal-provoking an 
alliance, he was not mightily disturbed by Mr. 
Legge's communique. He deemed that his uncle, 
no less than himself, was incapable of violating 
the unwritten laws of good society, although he 
might conceivably disregard the Decalogue on the 
ground of its being vieux jeu. 

Nevertheless, the impossible was now in pro- 
cess of being accomplished. Bracing himself to 
meet the ordeal of his Sovereign's cold disapproval, 
or perhaps his warm displeasure, Sir William 
Hamilton took leave for a while of their Sicilian 
Majesties, and after a journey broken by short 
stays at Florence, at Venice and other centres of 
European fashion, brought Emma back to London 
after an absence of more than five years. 

Had it been possible for her when she so 
reluctantly left her Greville to foresee the manner 
and the purpose of her return, she might not have 
been so despairing and broken-hearted as we have 
seen her. Then exile might have been welcomed 
in its true colour as a necessary and salutary 
break to all old associations. For the discarded 
mistress returned to London as an expectant 
bride ; the modest ' Tea-maker ' as the Ambassa- 
dress-elect. 

Once installed in that mansion in Piccadilly 
where Sir WiUiam set up an establishment only a 



Nelson's Legacy 209 

degree less splendid than that he maintained in 
Naples, the great and the wealthy — His Grace of 
Queensberry, my Lord Abercorn, Mr. Beckford of 
Fonthill, and many others — were quick to pay 
their devoirs to the beauty, poseuse^ and song- 
stress whose fame had travelled from Naples more 
quickly than herself; to whom were attributed 
all the talents, not only in the profession from 
which she was to emerge through the doors of 
Marylebone Church, but those that would have 
fitted her to shine upon the stage. Emma was 
feted in London little less than she had been in 
Naples. 

But the heart is a homing bird, and her thoughts 
dwelt ever upon the delayed interview with 
Greville. It was his welcome for which she longed, 
his praise on her improvement which she coveted, 
his good wishes she needed for the occasion. 
Mr. Greville was in Scotland when his uncle and 
former pupil arrived in London. She had to 
conceal her impatience whilst he tarried there. 
She did not yet know how he would receive the 
news of the approaching marriage, nor what differ- 
ence he might deem it would make to his own 
prospects. She feared, she hoped, but above all 
she longed, to see his face, to hear his voice, 
knowing that was the goal to which all her hard 
work and desire for self-improvement had tended, 



210 Nelson's Legacy 

that it was indeed he who had coloured her dreams 
and impelled her actions. 

By this time she had excused his treatment 
of her, in the way loving women have, and was 
willing to believe he had had only her benefit at 
heart, sometimes going so far as to think that 
even this marriage had been in his contemplation. 
Having so greatly benefited by her sojourn in 
Italy, she deemed it not unreasonable to suppose 
he had foreseen it. 

When at length she was advised of Mr. Greville's 
return to town, and Sir William announced to her 
that his nephew proposed to pay his respects that 
very afternoon, Emma flew to her mirror. Every- 
thing else faded from her mercurial mind — the 
importance of the interview with the King that 
was even now on the point of being accomplished, 
the dukes and marquises who had sought her 
favours, even Sir William Hamilton himself. 
Greville, her dear, dear Greville, was coming this 
afternoon, and he would see the difference five 
years had made in her. No one had touched her 
heart since he had won it. The connection with 
Sir William had been forced upon her. If she had 
but recently been too complaisant with my Lord 
Bristol, 'twas but an incident that made little 
impression on one to whom sin ever presented 
itself under euphemistic name. She had bought 



Nelson's Legacy 211 

Lord Bristol's advocacy of her claims to the 
married state by proving to him her accessibility 
as his friend's mistress. But Greville was a 
different matter. 

Her heart beat high at the expectation of 
meeting him ; she was all in a flutter, bewildered 
by her feelings, one moment thinking it possible 
he might ask her to give up his uncle and return to 
his embraces, another fearing lest he should find 
her altered but not improved. She had grown a 
little stouter, and Greville admired slender women. 
It was a radiant vision, nevertheless, that pre- 
sented itself to him, a little paler than of old, the 
blue eyes soft and the exquisite mouth tremulous. 
When he bowed over her hand he could note her 
emotion. His own voice was quite under control 
and his eyes only critical. 

* Would you have recognised her ? ' Sir William 
asked Charles ; he was proud of the transformation 
that had been achieved. ' She has an air of 
fashion, eh ? ' 

' Sir William ever over-praises me,' Emma 
said blushingly. 

' Would it be possible, madam, to over-praise 
where Perfection itself appears to confirm the 
charge ? ' answered Greville, surveying her with 
interest. But still her eyes were downcast, and 
presently her modish clothes could not disguise 



212 Nelson's Legacy 

from him that beneath the frills upon her bodice 
her heart was beating tumultuously, and that the 
tumult was for him. He was secretly amused and 
completely reassured. 

' I am enchanted by the sight of such beauty,' 
he ejaculated. 

' Oh, Greville, do not, I pray you, make fun of 
me,' she murmured. 

Sir William intervened before she had time to 
say more. 

* You will excuse me if I withdraw ; I stayed 
but to receive you, and hear what you might say 
of our fair one. Now the audience with the King 
awaits me. Wait, Charles, wait my return ; Emma 
will have much to tell you. I am asking the 
King's permission to our marriage. If he grant it, 
yours, I am sure, will not be lacking. Au revoir, 
Charles ; Emma, I charge you with his entertain- 
ment.' 

If Charles Greville was taken aback by the 
intelligence that Sir William Hamilton really con- 
templated marriage with his mistress, that he was 
even now on his way to ask the King's permission, 
he made no immediate demonstration of his 
chagrin or astonishment. Emma's beauty had 
indeed increased, so apparently had her ambitions. 
He waited to be alone with her to discover them 
and decide upon his action. If she was to be his 



Nelson's Legacy 213 

aunt, if he had blundered in his intentions, he did 
not intend to make another false step. But first 
he must know her mind. 

Sir William Hamilton was satisfied with Mr. 
Greville's attitude. Charles's imperturbability was 
rarely ruffled, and if he were less eloquent than 
usual on this occasion. Sir William attributed it 
to Emma's appearance. His fine connoisseur- 
ship had used him to the admiration his specimens 
ever excited. An honourable gentleman himself, 
and accustomed to look upon his nephew as his 
counterpart, he had no fear lest he should seek to 
rob him. He was, on the other hand, pleased that 
Charles should see what lustre the treasure they 
had exchanged had acquired in his keeping. Sir 
William Hamilton knew the coldness of Charles 
Greville's temperament, whilst Emma in the old 
days, notwithstanding how frequently she had flung 
herself against its limitations, had never truly 
realised them. 

Emma, after the departure of Sir William, was 
at first all in a tumult finding herself alone with 
Greville, and found words difficult. Greville's 
manner was perhaps less respectful after his uncle 
left the room. He continued to pay her com- 
pliments, but there was a touch of cynicism in 
them. Although she parried them with more wit 
than he had known she had at her command, yet 



214 Nelson's Legacy 

was she less at ease with him than she had been 
with any man these last five years. Perceiving her 
embarrassment, but not quite understanding its 
genesis, he asked : 

' So gossip spoke truly when it said you 
are contemplating marriage with my esteemed 
uncle ? ' 

' It is for that he even now waits upon His 
Majesty ; to secure permission and his confirma- 
tion in the Embassy.' 

' And then Emma will have achieved the height 
of her ambition.' 

' No, Greville, no ' ; her voice was low. 

' You are not in earnest, then, in pressing this 
marriage ? ' 

' I have the countenance of the Duchess of 
Argyll.' 

' And of His Grace of Bristol.' For there was 
little concerning his uncle of which Mr. Greville 
failed to hear. 

Emma coloured violently. ' Lord Bristol has 
great influence with Sir William,' she answered 
quickly, but with some embarrassment. 

Mr. Greville laughed, observing her closely, 
and thinking his shot had gone home. He rallied 
her lightly upon her conquest of the eccentric 
roue, for, in truth, the term applied to Lord Bristol. 
Emma became confused, and her wit left her. 



Nelson's Legacy 215 

Every minute she was in the company of Mr. 
Greville her feehng for him revived. She scarce 
heeded his word, so taken up was she with his 
voice and handsome person. No other man re- 
garded her so coldly, yet for none other her heart 
could beat so fast. They talked a little longer, 
then her rising Hush betrayed a new impulse, and 
quite abruptly she said, 

' Greville, Greville, have you forgot every- 
thing? How you comforted me at Up Park, 
and taught me in Edgeware Row ? Greville, 
have you forgot how I sat on your knee to 
learn my writing ? ' 

She was desperate for a word of kindness from 
him, to know he had not forgotten. This, this was 
her man ; not the elderly Sir William, nor the brutal 
Lord Bristol, nor any of the fiery Neapolitans who 
had begged her favours. It was only Greville who 
could reach her depths. 

She had come near to him, and if her beauty 
tempted him— as indeed it might, being of such 
rare calibre— the knowledge that he had parted 
with it, and his honour now stood pledged, made 
him not fond, but cruel. He looked at her, and 
before his look her own fell, the lovely colour 
flushing, and her eyes filling with tears. She made 
as if she would find shelter in his arms against the 
blushes that burned her and satisfaction there 



2i6 Nelson's Legacy 

for the hunger that consumed her. Once he had 
loved her, and seeing now she was more worthy 
of him, she pleaded again : 

' Greville, you have not forgotten ? ' 

' No, no, I have forgotten nothing.' 

' You love me still ? ' 

At that he laughed— Mr. Greville's low, well- 
bred laugh. ' The old Emma,' he exclaimed, ' the 
unchanged, unchangeable Emma ! ' 

' She for whom her Greville once cared.' 

' And misunderstood.' 

' Never, Greville, never ; you alone have known 
me.' 

Perhaps she stirred his tepid blood unpleasantly, 
perhaps he was only angered by the knowledge 
how far she had succeeded with Sir William Hamil- 
ton. It is difficult to know what possessed him. 
He stood there in his knee breeches and lace ruffles, 
hat in hand, the most handsome and elegant of 
figures, opposite one whom everyone acknowledged 
to be the loveliest of her sex. And all that was 
in his logical mind was how he could hurt her. 
All that was in hers was how much she loved him 
still, this dear, dear Greville, his cold blue eyes, 
which she had seen half-closed, but with a gleam 
in them, his thin lips, on which she had felt warmth 
and seeking, his clear, fair skin, which she had 
seen flush. . . . 



Nelson's Legacy 217 

' Greville,' she burst forth again, ' you don't 
know how I have longed for this hour.' 

' The hour in which you would announce to me 
your approaching marriage to my uncle ? ' he 
asked calmly. 

' The hour in which I would tell you riches 
was nothing, nor honour, nor greatness, if my 
Greville loves me still,' she got out, the warm colour 
flushing in her cheeks and her eyes shining. At 
that moment she would have given up every- 
thing. ' Love is the greatest of all,' Emma cried. 
And again Greville laughed. The laugh misled 
her, and now she was babbling to him of how she 
had thought and dreamed of him for weeks and 
months after she had left him, and even after he 
had ceased to write ; and of how other men had 
wooed her, but none had effaced his dear image. 
When he answered her lightly, but with a question, 
she admitted she had yielded to his uncle, but only 
in his interests. She swore it was only in his 
interests. Mr. Greville listened, watching the glow 
of her beautiful eyes, the rise and fall of her bosom, 
noting every curve and line. He was not un- 
moved, but, mysteriously enough, he was moved 
to anger. Perhaps the knowledge of how impos- 
sible it was to take what she offered him, to put 
back the hands of the clock, was what impelled 
him. For she was enough to tempt any man to 



2i8 Nelson's Legacy 

his own dishonour, but Mr. Greville's must remain 
immaculate before the world, justified before him- 
self. 

' Greville ' — she was very near to him, and her 
eyes pleaded—' will you take me back ? ' 

' Always my impulsive Emma,' his pale lips 
murmured. 

*But you will, Greville, you will . . .' 

' Maintain a model for Mr. Romney ? ' Greville 
completed the sentence. ' No, my dear Emma, 
no. I will leave that for my uncle. If indeed he 
choose it, when I advise him of my real reason for 
parting with one so fair and so frail.' He was still 
facing her with that smile. 

It was as if he struck her ; the colour that 
flushed painfully in her cheeks had that aspect, 
and so had her filled eyes. She shrank back from 
him all at once ; then said, in a low voice : 

' You don't mean that, Greville ; you never 
really thought I deceived you with Mr. Romney ? ' 

He had hurt her through and through, though 
as yet she could hardly feel the pain for the shock. 
A moment before her heart had been warm and 
quick for him, and leaped at his regard ; now it 
felt cold and heavy, as if it would stop beating 
altogether. 

' You cannot mean it,' she repeated. ' You 
said 'twas for my improvement. . . . ' Her beau- 



Nelson's Legacy 219 

tiful eyes were full of tears, and it was all the best 
and finest of her they flooded. ' It was not be- 
cause you believed I trafficked with Mr. Romney 
you sent me to Italy ? Say it is not true. You 
don't think that Mr. Romney . . .' 

' Although an artist, was nevertheless a man ? ' 
he finished her hesitant speech quite coolly. He 
never forgot his courtliness of manner. * I did, 
I do. You must forgive me, my dear Emma, for 
my knowledge of human nature. I believe that 
as soon as I shared one of my privileges with Mr. 
Romney, I shared them all. I had forgiven you 
Captain Willet Payne, and perhaps Dr. Graham, 
Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh. . . .' Mr. Gre- 
ville's snuff-box had been made in Paris, it was 
jewelled, and decorated with a miniature of Marie 
Antoinette. He helped himself from it delicately, 
and continued : * But Mr. Romney ! A mere 
countryman, of little breeding and less manners. 
And after I had flattered myself that I had at least 
succeeded in refining your tastes. . . . ' He gave 
a little shudder. ' From Charles Greville to George 
Romney ! Oh ! Emma, you disappointed me 
there.' A further recourse to his snuff-box showed 
his indifference; he was still smiling. 

She burst forth : 

' Say no more, Greville, say no more ; you have 
said too much already. You affected then belief 



220 Nelson's Legacy 

in my innocence . . .' Her anger was beginning 
to rise. 

' You will do me the justice to believe that I 
acted upon that affected belief, guarding your best 
interest in transferring you to my uncle.' 

' And wronged me all these years, wronged 
me, Greville.' 

He shrugged his shoulders : 

' Constancy, my dear Emma, constancy is the 
prerogative of the incurious ; and you were ever 
of an adventurous disposition.' 

' You are trying to anger me. You are going 
to tell this wicked story to Sir William.' 

' A gentleman should be fully informed about 
the lady he intends to make his wife.' 

' I had no intercourse with Mr. Romney ; you 
know it. You want to stop my marriage with 
your uncle. But you shan't. I will marry him 
whatever you say. Sir William loves me 
truly. . . .' 

The smile never left his countenance : 

' And knows you so little. Think, Emma, 
think ! Will this marriage be for your happiness 
any more than for his ? Will you be true to 
him ? You know you will not. Do not think I 
am reproaching you for this ; you will ever act 
in accordance with your charming and impulsive 
temperament, one which I have had the oppor- 



Nelson's Legacy 221 

tunity of studying, and which I have no hesitation 
in describing as characteristic of the true daughter 
of pleasure. What have you offered me this 
moment, whilst my uncle is even now in quest of 
the wedding ring ? Once you found enjoyment in 
my embraces, and you would essay the gratifica- 
tion again. Mr. Romney tempted you with the 
thought of posterity, and Lord Bristol with his 
advocacy. So will you yield again, and yet again, 
to him who most cleverly flatters your vanity or 
appeals to what I now perceive to be a most 
excellent understanding.' 

Again he had recourse to the snuff-box. 

' You will not place me in the unpleasant posi- 
tion of having to tell my uncle how you posed to 
Mr. Romney, and that only recently he has boasted 
of your goodness to him. You will abandon the 
idea of this marriage ... it is absurd, inade- 
quate, there are no heights to which you cannot 
aspire. The young Prince ... he has but to 
see you. Be reasonable, Emma ; you jeopardise 
not only my interests but your own if you go 
on with this mad scheme. You force me to the 
truth ; my uncle will listen to me. . . . ' 

In the days gone by Emma had listened to 
many orations proceeding from the lips of her 
idolized protector, orations lengthier perhaps, but 
little less polished in form or less suavely delivered. 



222 Nelson's Legacy 

Never had she listened to one that so powerfully 
affected her as did this declaration of the light 
in which she had so long been regarded by the 
man with the belief in whose love she had deluded 
herself. She realised now to the full that those 
whom the gods would destroy they first make 
blind. Her love for Greville was disinterested and 
sincere, and it was he who wounded her. 

She gazed on him with wide eyes and parted 
lips, and the heaving of her bosom betrayed the 
distress her pride urged her to conceal. She knew 
that it was Greville alone for whom she had ever 
cared, Greville alone whom she loved, or ever 
could love. In every cold syllable that fell from 
his lips she heard the metallic ring of scorn, and 
at last she knew that what he felt for her was not 
love but derision. The self-respect which he had 
once been so careful to instil into her, so attentive 
in nurturing, quivered and died. All her dreams 
turned nightmares. She might not fail in con- 
fronting the world with a proud mien, yet the 
memory of this moment, and the knowledge of 
Greville' s contempt, and that he had never believed 
in the innocence of her friendship with Mr. Romney, 
was to remain with her, proving the incentive to 
all it forf ended. 

Man's vision is purged with euphrasy and rue, 
a sour herb, albeit a herb of grace. 



Nelson's Legacy 223 

Emma at last saw Mr. Greville as he was ; a 
man without a heart, one who could be deluded 
by his own sophistrj^ into misapprehending mean- 
ness for magnanimity. Was he not threatening 
her now with a revelation of what she had offered 
to him because she loved him ? Was he even 
honest in his accusation of her with Mr. Romney ? 
Was this her hero ? She fell with his fall, for the 
only pedestal on which she had ever aspired to 
stand was his esteem. 

' It is not to your interest, Greville, to dis- 
oblige me,' she began, when she had in a measure 
collected herself. ' You do not know what power 
I have. If I marry Sir William Hamilton, not- 
withstanding what you may tell him, will it not 
prove I can do as I will with him ? Then what of 
your affairs ? He has told me you are still in debt.' 

Greville was not easy, but affected to dismiss 
the suggestion with indifference. 

' I shall accept your ladyship's ruling,' he 
answered. The title on his lips was a sneer, and 
his bow was ironical. Yet when she spoke thus 
of reprisal, he could not but admire an ingenuity 
so kin to his own spirit. 

' You shall put your wit against my wit, and 
the encounter prove us.' He took her hand, he 
kissed it. At the touch of his lips on her hand 
her courage failed again. 



224 Nelson's Legacy 

' But why does Emma speak of revenge in the 
same breath with you ? Was not you good to 
my child, and was not you the cause of making 
me what I am ? ' She was hurried in her speech 
and a little incoherent. Perhaps he had not 
meant to repulse and threaten her. ' Greville, can 
we not be friends ? ' She was looking pleadingly 
into his eyes, and he was reconsidering his posi- 
tion, when the door opened to admit Sir William 
Hamilton. Not behind his nephew in correctness 
of behaviour, he evidenced no annoyance at the 
familiarity revealed by their attitude. 

' Congratulate me, my dear nephew ; con- 
gratulate me, Emma ; the King consents. My 
love, we can be married at your convenience.' 

Mr. Greville drew himself up and said all that 
the occasion required. Emma expressed herself 
as transported. She gave a side glance from her 
eyes to Mr. Greville when she exclaimed that she 
would like Mr. Romney to be the first to hear the 
news. She had recovered herself so quickly that 
Mr. Greville might well have believed the whole 
interview a dream, her tears and appeals to him 
for reinstatement in Edgeware Row but a farce 
she had played for his benefit. 

* You know Mr. Romney and I was always such 
friends,' she went on to Sir William. 

' Impudent ' was perhaps the word Mr. Greville 



Nelson's Legacy 225 

would have used to describe her manner. He 
could not, however, withhold his tribute to her 
cleverness. 

' Mr. Romney must paint me as The Ambassa- 
dress.' Then, quite roguishly, she added, ' Will 
Mr. Greville attend his future aunt to Cavendish 
Square ? ' 

Mr. Greville might have consented, and taken 
the opportunity to make his peace with her. But 
Sir William, a little pompous, although secure in 
the knowledge of all he was giving, interposed with, 
* My love, it is I who will escort you to Mr. Romney's 
studio. The coach is even now at the door. You 
wish to surprise him, and you shall. But do not 
forget that the Duke of Queensberry entertains us 
to-night ; I hear the Prince of Wales is to be 
there. Your old friend shall not be neglected ; 
you show your good heart by the desire to acquaint 
him early with the change in your prospects. But 
our time is limited.' 

Touched by Sir William's chivalry, for she saw 
he was wishful Mr. Greville should know how, and 
by whom, she was being received, Emma's eyes 
filled again. Taking leave of Mr. Greville with 
an easy grace, she followed her elderly cavalier 
downstairs, and allowed him to hand her into the 
carriage. She would get from Mr. Romney's own 
lips a refutation of the scandal Mr. Greville had 



226 Nelson's Legacy 

started. He himself should tell Sir William how 
she had posed for him and why. Sir William 
would understand. He had often said there had 
been no figure like hers since the Greek. 

In the carriage, en route for Cavendish Square, 
Sir William used the occasion to say a warning 
word about Greville. Emma avowed that all her 
affections were given to her future husband. If 
her heart was heavy, her vanity suffering from 
its first severe wound and her self-respect a torn 
and ragged garment that could never again cover 
her, her coquetry at least never failed. She so 
cajoled him that he believed her regard for Mr. 
Greville to be dead, and for him permanent. He 
left her at Mr. Romney's door, promising to return 
when he had visited his tailor and arrange how 
she was to be painted. Sir William knew that 
Mr. Romney was a great artist. There was a sob 
in her throat as she mounted the stairs. How 
could Greville have said that Romney boasted of 
her favours ! He would himself tell Sir William 
he was only her friend. It was wicked to have 
slandered him. 

Throwing open the door of the studio in her 
own dramatic manner, she stood before Mr. 
Romney, an unexpected apparition of beauty, 
ravishingly set off by her white embroidered 
organdie and straw bonnet with the blue ribbons. 



Nelson's Legacy 227 

The artist was lying back in a great arm-chair, an 
expression of settled melancholy on his features, 
which were sunk and attenuated by long ill- 
health. At sight of her he first stared incredulous, 
then sprang to his feet with the liveliest joy re- 
animating his face and figure. 

' Emma ! Emma ! ' he cried. ' Heaven, I 
thank thee ! Incarnation of beauty, source of all 
inspiration, dearest object of my affections, do I 
indeed behold thee again, or is this apparition but 
the figment of a brain weakened by sickness ? 
Speak to me, speak ; and let thy voice confirm 
what my eyes scarce dare believe.' 

It took long for Emma to realise what had 
already become patent to Mr. Hayley and the 
other intimates of the painter. For if Mr. Rom- 
ney's mind had become disordered the only imme- 
diate manifestation was an exaggerated pleasure 
in this unexpected visit, and an almost incoherent 
excitement that, whilst it touched her heart, gave 
her at first little clue to his condition. 

She told him of her approaching marriage with 
Sir William Hamilton, and was satisfied with the 
transports her words evoked. No father could 
have shown greater joy in the brilliant marriage 
of a favourite daughter than Mr. Romney ex- 
hibited now. The gratification of the soothsayer 
who sees his prophecies fulfilled was his, for he 



228 Nelson's Legacy 

had formed the highest opinion of Emma's capa- 
bihties at the very beginning of his acquaintance 
with her, and had never ceased to predict that 
she would rise some day to a secure and exalted 
position. 

' How will you paint me now, Romney ? ' 
Emma asked artlessly, ' as The Ambassadress, as 
Campania smiling on Vesuvius to drive the clouds 
from his brow ? ' 

Mr. Romney's enthusiasm was unbounded. He 
walked from easel to easel, placing new canvases 
here and there, and even making rough sketches 
in charcoal. 

' I will paint you now, as you are, in that white 
dress and bonnet. I will paint you as Mirth, as you 
also are now. And then you must be my model 
for Joan of Arc ; that is one idea I brought back 
with me from France. And as Cassandra. There 
is Constance, too. I am to paint a picture of 
Constance for the Shakespeare Gallery. But Joan 
of Arc first. Emma, you will be Joan of 
Arc?' 

' And rout all my enemies ? Yes, yes, indeed.' 
And she threw herself into a spirited attitude. 
' But Joan of Arc was put to death. See, Romney, 
see ! ' She changed the pose ; now she was the 
very spirit of humility. ' I am betrayed, I suffer 
meekly.' 



Nelson's Legacy 229 

' Wonderful, wonderful ! ' he cried. ' Do not 
move, I pray you ; do not move. You are the 
Maid, the saintly Maid herself. . . .' 

Again she flung up her head, and her eyes 
flashed courage. ' Look, I am borne in fire to 
Heaven, and my memory remains to encourage 
every maid to rise superior to her lowly origin. 
Paint me holding a kingdom in the hoflow of my 
hand. For, Romney, I mean to hold Naples so. 
I am in the Queen's confidence.' She wanted to 
tell him all that happened to her. 

A sudden despondency seized Romney the 
instant she had left off posing, and he sank 
back again into his chair with a groan. ' But 
you are going away again ; you will leave 
me.' 

' Not yet, not for a long time. And I 
will come to you every day I am in Eng- 
land.' 

' This marriage will estrange us. Never, never 
again will you be my Emma, mine.' His head 
sank on his breast, he began to mutter to him- 
self. 

She stood perplexed, bewildered ; then went 
over to him, and knelt by his chair. 

' I am not altered, I shall not alter, Romney,' 
she cried. ' I will always be your inspiration, 
your " Divine Lady." Look up and tell me what 



230 Nelson's Legacy 

I am to be. See ! I have so many new atti- 
tudes.' She was still far from understanding what 
ailed him. 

He went on talking to himself, and then, in- 
deed, doubt and apprehension touched her. For 
what was it he was saying ? 

' Never again my Emma, mine ; the goddess 
who gave herself to me, Venus, with the golden 
apple, to whose temptation I succumbed ; Andro- 
meda to my Perseus, or Helen. . . .' The next 
sentence that came from him must remain un- 
chronicled. 

Her heart went cold as she listened to him. 
Was he not voicing Mr. Greville's accusation ? 
She rose from her knees and stood spellbound, 
her pallor increasing, and nothing but dismay in 
her heart or head. He went on as one who talks 
in dream : 

' I see you still ; your red gold hair falling 
almost to your feet. I feel your ivory shoulders, 
see the blue vein beneath your upraised arm as you 
throw back a curl that seeks to hide the invita- 
tion in your eyes, your sweet eyes. I feel your 
miracle of a mouth, that clung again and again 
to mine. You gave me love, and I conferred 
Immortality upon you. Immortal Emma ! you 
are going from me. My arms will be empty and 
your figure refuse to come when I invoke it. 



Nelson's Legacy 231 

Shadows to haunt me instead, clouds to gather, 
dark, and ever darker. . . .' 

His mutterings grew louder and more inco- 
herent. And now at last Emma understood 
with a chill that touched her spine and curdled 
her blood, that he knew not she was there before 
him in the flesh, the exquisite flesh. He was 
dreaming of that which she had never been, could 
never have been to him. She brushed her hands 
before her eyes. What was it he was saying ? 
What had Mr. Greville said ? She was more than 
unhappy, she was terrified ! Could it have been 
true, had she forgotten ? Had Mr. Romney gone 
mad, or was she mad ? She turned and fled, never 
heeding her appointment with Sir William, nor 
what complexion would be put upon her flight. 
She fled from the unknown, from this destroyed 
genius who accused her, from herself, and all the 
memories of the studio. . . . 

Fortunately, it was into Sir William's arms 
that she precipitated herself. He was already 
awaiting her at the foot of the stairs. ' My 
dear Emma, you have been alarmed, you are 
uneasy. Collect yourself. Let me convey you 
to the carriage. You will not forget, I am 
sure, that His Grace of Queensberry awaits 
us.' 

Emma began to pour out an incoherent account 



232 Nelson's Legacy 

of Mr. Greville's accusations, Mr. Romney's mad- 
ness, her own fears. Sir William Hamilton found 
little difficulty in tracing the source of her emotion 
to the great news, the approaching assembly, to 
her affection for him, and the excitement the day 
had brought forth. He set himself to soothing 
her, and with success. She soon recovered her 
composure as she realised the strength of her 
position with him. Greville could not harm her, 
she was too deeply entrenched in this strong heart 
for any shots to reach her. // ^^a^^a^o e morto. 
The past was all behind her, and the future radiant 
with promise. 

At the Duke of Queensberry's reception her 
glowing and lovely face eclipsed all the ladies of 
fashion. Her Grace of Devonshire looked old and 
faded in comparison. The duke told her so him- 
self, and the smile with which she regarded the 
compliment was like sunshine in the room. It 
was impossible she had ever been ' Emma of Mrs. 
Kelly's,' or ' Frail Emma of Edgeware Row.' She 
was at this brilliant reception in her proper person, 
the affianced wife of the King's brother, the future 
Ambassadress ! Everything else had been a dream, 
a nightmare ; only now she was awake, to find the 
world at her feet and Greville's threats negligible 
and absurd. A beautiful woman is an irresistible 
power. 



Nelson's Legacy 233 

On September 6th, anno domini 1790, cetatis suce 
XXV., Emma Hart was married at Marylebone 
Church, by the Reverend Doctor Edward Barry, to 
Sir William Hamilton, K.C.B., in the presence of 
Lord Abercorn and Mr. Dutens. 

The first volume of Emma's life-story is 
completed. The next is concerned with Lady 
Hamilton. 



CHAPTER XII 

Explains the political position at the Court of Naples when Emma 
returns as the wife of the British Ambassador. The Queen 
uses Emma as one of the pawns in the game she is playing 
with the Powers. Emma imagines herself the Bishop, the 
Castle, and all the larger pieces. 

HISTORY has its fictions, no less than the law, 
and amongst these is one that the world's 
affairs are shaped by men. In the King's Council 
reverend seigniors wag wise heads ere promulgating 
his decrees ; grave elders codify his laws and ad- 
minister his justice ; brave captains wage his battles 
by land or sea. Women, these declare, lack judg- 
ment to decide matters of statecraft, as they lack 
strength to enforce decision by arms. For their part, 
women are not greatly concerned to argue the 
thesis. They have not failed to perceive that the 
influence exerted without ostentation commonly 
escapes opposition by eluding observation, and 
that the most effective forces, like those of nature, 
ever operate silently. They are content to leave 
action to men born of them, while they themselves, 
behind their silken curtains, breed the ideas from 
which alone action springs. Through long ages 

234 



Nelson's Legacy 235 

the story of men's deeds, which have made 
history, is in its essence but the epitome of 
women's thoughts. Her pride, her vanity, her 
lust, her ambition— it is to gratify one or all of 
these that man has intrigued, fought, and died 
ever since the sons of God saw the daughters of 
men that they were fair. 

One of the innumerable examples of the truth 
of this proposition is furnished by the illustrious 
lady into the closest personal relations with whom 
Emma was brought on her return to Naples as 
Lady Hamilton. Calumny has been ever busy 
with Maria Carolina, Queen of the Two Sicilies, 
but fairness must admit that, whatever her pri- 
vate pleasures or predispositions, it was she who 
shaped the affairs of the country of which her 
royal consort was the nominal ruler. 

The eldest daughter of Maria Theresa, that 
woman of heroic parts, she inherited from her 
mother pride of race, a tenacious attachment to 
the Roman Catholic Church, and an unalterable 
belief in her own intellectual capacity. Bred in 
an atmosphere of cosmopolitan politics, and imbib- 
ing statecraft with her mother's milk, Maria Caro- 
lina grew up to watch with an observant eye the 
trend of the world's thoughts. Soon after her 
marriage she perceived how, throughout the con- 
tinent of Europe, this was in the direction of 



236 Nelson's Legacy 

freedom. Too intelligent to suppose that the 
advancing spirit of the age could be withstood by 
government — whether invested in a corporation 
aggregate or a corporation sole — she considered 
only how she could so guide its direction among 
the populace of her own country as to pre- 
serve her monarchy by the introduction of 
reforms, and thus avert the ruder shock of revo- 
lution. 

Had she been mated to a consort the equal of 
herself in political sagacity, in ambition, and in 
application to the due discharge of a prince's high 
responsibilities, Maria Carolina might have had the 
happiness of seeing her country ranked among 
the European Powers. For it is not by the number 
of its population nor the extent of its superficies 
that the greatness of a country is computed ; else 
Greece had not broken the pride of Persia, nor 
Alva hammered in vain upon the iron courage of 
the Netherlands. 

But King Ferdinand had no inclinations to- 
wards the graver duties of the royal state. Content 
to reign, he did not choose to rule, accepting the 
privileges of the throne, whilst ignoring its re- 
sponsibilities. Easy pleasures, sport, wine, and 
woman sufficed him ; he was only serious about 
the chase ; everything else he took lightly. If he 
resented, whilst he admired, his spouse's strength 



Nelson's Legacy 237 

of character, he was yet fitfully willing to leave the 
government of his kingdom in her more able, and 
far more ambitious, hands. His was the life that 
commended itself to the most part of his subjects, 
a thoughtless, reckless, superstitious crew, hot- 
blooded, and indolent under the Southern sun. 
With the lazzaroni he was popular and his rough 
despotism safe. He concerned himself but little 
with the feudal lords, grimly tenacious of their 
ancient rights, or for those others to whom the 
spirit of the new age was making its resistless 
appeal, and who clamoured they hardly knew for 
what. He preferred to leave them and their 
affairs to his Queen and Ministers. Whilst she 
perfected and experimented with her schemes, 
some visionary, few practicable, all of them well- 
intentioned, not all of them well-approved, he 
interested himself more particularly with the size 
of his bags. 

Until the storm of revolution, thundering appall- 
ingly in France, rolled in lowering clouds towards 
Italy, Maria Carolina, too, found time for enter- 
tainment. A woman of intellect, she gathered 
around her men and women eminent in literature 
and science. But she was lacking in neither 
vivacity nor feeling and she permitted herself 
certain indulgences which gossip exaggerated into 
the most scandalous excesses. 



238 Nelson's Legacy 

Into this lighter side of her Hfe the whole world 
could not have produced a better companion than 
the one ready to her hand in Lady Hamilton. 
When the famous beauty returned to Naples, white- 
washed and made respectable by marriage, the 
Queen was more than ready to receive her into 
favour. Sir William had brought her back to 
Naples by way of Paris, where they had had 
audience of the Queen of Naples' sister, the ill- 
fated Marie Antoinette, already standing under the 
shadow of the scaffold. That poor lady, entrust- 
ing the Ambassadress with a letter to her sister, 
gave a passport which Maria Carolina was not the 
one to challenge. 

' I have been received with open arms by all the 
Neapolitans of both sexes ' [Lady Hamilton wrote to 
Romney a few weeks after her arrival], ' by all the for- 
eigners of every distinction. I have been presented to 
the Queen of Naples by her own desire, she as shown me 
all sort of kind and affectionate attentions ; in short, I 
am the happiest woman in the world. Sir William is 
fonder of me every day, and I hope I will have no cause 
to repent of what he as done, for I feel so grateful to him 
that I think I shall never be able to make amends for 
his goodness to me.' 

Sir William, too, had the gratification of being 
able to write that Emma had succeeded wonder- 
fully, and by having no pretensions had gained 
the appreciation of all the Enghsh ladies, besides 



Nelson's Legacy 239 

being received by the Queen, who treated her hke 
any other traveUing lady of distinction. 

The metamorphosis was indeed complete ; and 
Mr. Greville was fain to admit that Emma had 
more than made good her assurance that he did 
not know what power she had in Naples even 
before her threatened marriage to his uncle had 
become an accomplished fact. That power was 
doubly reinforced now, and nobody was so unwise 
as not to make a point of being civil to Charles 
Greville's discarded mistress. 

The Queen made her home at Caserta during 
the summer solstice, and thither Sir William Hamil- 
ton moved his establishment for political reasons. 

' Our house has been like an inn ' [Emma wrote]. 
' We had the Duchess of Ancaster several days. It is 
but three days since the Devonshire family has left ; and 
we had fifty in our family for four days at Caserta. 'Tis 
true we dined every day at court, or at some casino of 
the King ; for you cannot imagine how good our King 
and Queen as been to the principal English who have 
been here — particularly to Lord and Lady Palmerston, 
Cholmondeley, Devonshire, Lady Spencer, Lady Bess- 
borough, Lady Plymouth, Sir George and Lady Webster. 
And I have carried the ladies to the Queen very often, as 
she as permitted me to go very often in private, which 
I do. ... In the evenings I go to her and we fire tete-a- 
tete 2 or 3 hours. Sometimes we sing. Yesterday the 
King and me sang duetts 3 hours. It was but bad. . . . 
To-day the Princess Royal of Sweden comes to court to 



240 Nelson's Legacy 

take leave of Their Majesties. Sir William and me are 
invited to dinner with her. She is an amiable Princess 
and as lived very much with us. The other ministers' 
wives have not shown her the least attention because 
she did not pay them the first visit, as she travels under 
the name of the Countess of Wasa. . . . Her Majesty 
told me I had done very well in waiting on her Royal 
Highness the moment she arrived. However, the minis- 
ters' wives are very fond of me, as they see I have no 
pretensions nor do I abuse Her Majesty's goodness, 
and she observed the other night at court at Naples we 
had a drawing-room in honner of the Empress having 
brought a son. I had been with the Queen the night 
before alone, en famille, laughing and singing, etc., etc., 
but at the drawing-room I kept my distance and payd 
the Queen as much respect as tho' I had never seen her 
before, which pleased her very much. But she showed 
me great distinction that night, and told me several 
times how she admired my good conduct. . . . You 
may imagine how happy my dear, dear Sir William is. 
We live more like lovers than husband and wife, as hus- 
bands and wives go nowadays. Lord deliver me ! and 
the English are as bad as the Italians some few excepted. 
... I study very hard, and I have had all my songs 
set for the viola, so that Sir William may accompany me, 
which as pleased him very much so that we study to- 
gether. The English garden is going on verj^ fast. The 
King and Queen go there every day. Sir William and 
me are there every morning at seven o'clock, sometimes 
dine there, and all ways drink tea there. . . .' 

A like tale of familiarity with the greatness of 
the world, and even of conscious superiority to 




LADY HAMILTON AS CASSAXDRA 

FROM THE PAINTING BY ROMNEY, IN THE POSSESSION 

OF TANKERVILLE CHAMBERLAYNE, ESQ. 



Nelson's Legacy 241 

it, is told in the letters which her husband wrote 

to Emma on his occasional absences from her side, 

when he accompanied the royal sportsman on his 

expeditions. 

' You did admirably, my dear Em., in not inviting Lady 
A. H. to dine with the Prince, and still better in telling her 
honestly the reason. I have always found that going 
straight is the best method, though not the way of the 
world. You also did very well in asking Madame Ska- 
mouski, and not taking upon you to present her without 
leave. ... As the Prince asked you, you did right to 
send for a song of Douglas's, but in general you will do 
right only to sing at home.' 

That Emma's new prudery was shocked by 

the behaviour of some of the friends of royalty, 

and found it more fitted for the stables or kitchen 

than her own gilded drawing-rooms, is suggested 

by her husband's light rejoinder to some criticism 

she passed : 

'Let them all roll on the carpet, provided you are 
not of the party. My trust is in you alone.' 

Calumny, we have said, has been busy with the 
name of Maria Carolina, not hesitating to describe 
her as a modern Cytherea, who lent herself to 
orgies of extravagance and riotous pleasure, in- 
dulging in vices of which one cannot even write the 
names. The truth can certainly never be known 
by any mortal until that final awful day when the 

secrets of all hearts shall be laid bare. But it is 
Q 



242 Nelson's Legacy 

more charitable, and probably it is far nearer to 
the truth, to say that much of her conduct at this 
critical juncture in her country's history was 
actuated solely by reasons of high policy. 

She gave the extravagant entertainments which 
were the talk of the fashionable world because 
they were congenial to her courtiers, and, by 
amusing, kept them from playing at politics, and 
dabbling in revolutionary intrigues. They were 
also agreeable to her husband, and checked any 
possible inclination on his part to interfere with 
her exercise of power ; and they drew to the capital 
a throng of fashionable and influential visitors 
from the centres of civilisation, among whom it 
was possible to disseminate ideas that might lead 
to action beneficial to the cause of royalty when 
those lowering thunder-clouds of revolution should 
envelop Italy, too, in storm. 

The Queen was far-sighted in her statecraft. 
From the beginning of the happenings in France 
she foresaw that a day might arise when the active 
sympathy and offensive and defensive alliance of 
Great Britain would be necessary to save her own 
kingdom of the Two Sicilies from rapine, and her 
throne from extinction. 

In bestowing unlimited favour on Lady Hamil- 
ton, and in encouraging her consort's familiarity 
with Sir William, already for twenty years a 



Nelson's Legacy 243 

personal friend, the Queen truly believed she was 
diplomatically securing the influence of the British 
Ambassador for her own political schemes, and 
thus laying the foundation for an Anglo-Sicilian 
alliance. Whatever pleasures for herself she may 
have gathered by the way — and for our part we 
have no belief that her intimacy with Emma was 
other than the natural inclination of one woman 
of temperament with another — there is no doubt 
that in her negotiations with Sir William Hamilton, 
and through him with his Government, Maria 
Carolina wrought better and more surely than 
many a man whose name has been inscribed 
upon the roll of the great statesmen of the 
world. 

Diplomacy is the science, or art, of conducting 
negotiations between nations, and differs essenti- 
ally from politics, which treats of the distribu- 
tion of power in a country. An undeniable talent 
for diplomacy rendered the Queen of Naples 
competent to deal ably and successfully with 
foreign affairs. But in the domestic equivalent she 
was less successful. Dictatorial by native temper, 
she scorned conciliation as unbeseeming to her 
dignity, and, whilst undoubtedly inspired by a 
sincere desire to inaugurate wise reforms, she 
alienated the loyalty of one class of her subjects, 
without freeing the other from a feudal system 



244 Nelson's Legacy 

long odious to it. In her anxiety to detect the 
earhest germination in her dominions of the seeds 
of anarchy, she irritated to a dangerous point the 
easy lazzaroni by estabhshing a kind of secret 
inquisition particularly hateful to their Bohemian 
temper. 

This is not the history of Maria Carolina, except 
in so far as it impinges upon that of our heroine. 
It is enough to say that she loved licence, but 
feared anarchy, and was late in learning that 
in Italy, and in these times, the one presaged 
the other. England was the land of free- 
dom, and upon England she concentrated her 
strength. 

Lady Hamilton was the recipient of her com- 
plicated and halting confidences. Seeing how her 
countrymen were regarded, and how she herself 
stood facile princeps in the Queen's regard amongst 
the distinguished English colony then in Naples, 
it is not, perhaps, surprising that Emma, Lady 
Hamilton, came in time to imagine she had been 
the pivot upon which all history revolved. It was 
she who was the medium of communication between 
the Queen and the British Ambassador, and be- 
tween the Queen and the unofficial, but no less 
powerful, representatives of the British people. 
Those of the Neapolitans whose sympathies were 
French would have been wiser had they contemned 



Nelson's Legacy 245 

her less as a parvenue, so frivolous as to be 
negligible as a factor in political affairs. 

Both Sir William Hamilton and Acton had a 
more accurate perception of her real utility. It 
was of the first importance that they should obtain 
and transmit to their Government the earliest 
intelligence of the intentions of the other Powers, 
and this they were enabled to do by the confidence 
placed by the Queen in the Ambassadress. The 
Queen's fear and bitter hatred of France, both 
raised to the ultimate extremity by the execution 
of Louis and the even more horrible assassination 
of Marie Antoinette, led her to condescend to every 
device by which she might pave the way to ven- 
geance on her sister's murderers, and combat the 
Jacobinism which had produced such bloody spawn. 

With Spain wavering in her opposition to the 
National Convention, and the Austrian Bourbons 
paralysed by the increasing power of the Corsican, 
Napoleon Buonaparte, she was more than ever set 
upon a definite English alliance. She transmitted, 
through Emma, every scrap of information that 
she thought might be useful to the English Ambas- 
sador in persuading the Ministry in London to 
save Naples from the encroaching flood. 

A signal instance occurred when a courier 
brought Ferdinand, whose inclinations were Span- 
ish, a private letter from the King of Spain announc- 



246 Nelson's Legacy 

ing his intention to withdraw from the CoaHtion 
and join the French against England. The Queen 
took it from the King's pocket unseen, and allowed 
Emma to make a copy of it. As it happened that 
Sir William lay dangerously ill at that moment. 
Lady Hamilton herself, acting under the Queen's 
instructions, dispatched a messenger with the letter 
to Lord Grenville in London, taking all necessary 
precautions for the safe arrival of this most impor- 
tant despatch, and spending near four hundred 
pounds out of her privy purse on this delicate 
affair. But there is reason to believe Maria 
Carolina gave her the requisite money ! Emma 
was still reckless and extravagant and had no 
means of her own. Emma enjoyed playing at 
statecraft, but chiefly because it was a mark of 
the Queen's confidence, and enabled her to report 
to Greville, with whom, strangely enough, she was 
again on corresponding terms. 

' They ought to be gratfull to Sir William, and myself, 
in particular ' [she wrote of the Government] ; ' my 
situation in this court is very extraordinary, and what 
no person has yet arrived at.' 

But it was many years before that situation, 
to which she alluded, attained an important 
political aspect in her eyes or warranted her claim- 
ing that what she did was in the nature of dis- 
tinguished service to her country, deserving of 



Nelson's Legacy 247 

large pecuniary recognition. She was satisfied 
now, and for a long time afterwards, to rely upon 
her voice and her figure, her complexion and the 
gaiety of her entertainments to maintain her 
position. Those entertainments waxed ever in 
importance and splendour. Emma danced, sang, 
and attitudinised herself into prominence, aided 
by the senile fondness of her husband, and the 
countenance and good graces of the Queen, who 
used her services, and confided in her . . . that 
which she wished her to know. 

The letter which had been extracted from Fer- 
dinand's pocket, and which Emma had despatched 
to London, bore the serious news that, under irre- 
sistible pressure, Spain had left the Coalition. 
Events marched henceforward with inconceivable 
rapidity ; Buonaparte's progress acquired an ever- 
increasing momentum. Treaty after treaty bore 
signed and sealed testimony to his amazing 
triumphs. It seemed hopeless for the Neapolitan 
kingdom to hold out against the spirit of democracy 
of which his armed host was the incarnation. But 
Maria Carolina's spirit was unyielding ; and even 
when she signed what was now urgently put 
before her, following the humiliating example of 
the other Powers, and seeking an armistice, she 
was secretly intriguing for the recovery of the 
position she had pretended to abandon. 



248 Nelson's Legacy 

What had Emma to do with these negotiations ? 
She went to and fro, from the Palace to the house 
of the Ambassador, carrying letters of which she 
scarcely understood the significance, revelling in 
the importance she enjoyed, but knowing little 
what it portended. And had she realised it, and 
seen into the future as we know it to-day, it is 
doubtful but that she would have considered the 
discovery to Sir William Hamilton of Napoleon's 
designs on the Mediterranean second in importance 
to the advent of the English naval captain to 
which that news indirectly led. For, as Mr. 
Greville so truly said, Emma was always Emma, 
and already her elderly husband was becoming 
insufficient for her exuberance. 

Hi ^ H: Hi 4: He 

It was the Mediterranean upon which Buona- 
parte had set his eyes, the Mediterranean he meant 
to have. The English fleet was there. It would 
have to be removed or destroyed. So the Queen 
wrote to Sir William, and Emma carried the news. 
England must look to its navy ; it was the English 
navy that was now threatened, she wrote. As a 
preliminary preparation, Buonaparte was closing 
as many ports against it as his arms, or his diplo- 
macy, permitted. The clause in the treaty with 
the Neapolitan Court that no more than four 
English men of war should be provisioned in any 



Nelson's Legacy 249 

Neapolitan or Sicilian port at one and the same 
time, was the one that alarmed Maria Carolina. 
Unless saved by England, Naples, the Two Sicilies, 
v/ould follow the rest of Italy into subjection to 
France, and she herself would be but the negligible 
wife of yet one more roi 'pretendant. 

This was the reveillon that called Nelson to his 
fate, the fate that cost him more than the loss of 
an arm, or the obscuration of an eye, that was 
to outbalance his honour, and send him down to 
history, not the single-hearted patriot and hero 
that should have been his only title to fame, but 
as the victim to the wiles of a woman who had 
graduated in the school of vice whilst he was 
employing all his energies and powers in working 
for his country. 

We have followed Emma's progress from inno- 
cence to misfortune, and from misfortune to pros- 
perity. The retrogression of her character has 
been steady. Greville's hand precipitated the fall 
and the ultimate tragedy is in sight. Once the 
victim, we shall see her become the temptress. 
To her eternal shame, and his confusion, all the 
fascination of the education she had acquired, of 
the position to which Sir William Hamilton's weak- 
ness had raised her, of her beauty, now at its prime, 
and her natural talent, now at its meridian, was 
put forth for the seduction of the simple-minded 



250 Nelson's Legacy 

sailor, Captain Horatio Nelson, whose victories at 
the Nile, and triumphs at Trafalgar, have been 
overshadowed for all time by the publicity of the 
intrigue in which he engaged with the wife of 
the English Ambassador at Naples. 

But this is for the next and following chapters. 

Meanwhile the Court comedy was being played 
on. The old barons might sulk in their castles, 
the lazzaroni gabble about revolution over their 
macaroni and lacrime Christi, but still the King 
must hunt, and still the Queen must be amused. 
The English Ambassador was the King's constant 
companion in his big battues. Sir William wrote 
his wife, ' The King has killed eighty-one animals 
of one sort or other to-day and amongst them a 
wolf and some stags. He fell asleep in the coach, 
and awaking told me he had been dreaming of 
shooting. One would have thought he would have 
shed blood enough.' 

There was blood enough to be shed, and tears. 
Nelson was on his way to Emma, but he had left 
a wife behind, a wife to whom up to now he had 
been loving and faithful, in whom he saw no fault, 
and of whom he imagined no unkindness. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Chronicles the appearance of Nelson on the scene. The des- 
truction of the French Navy is followed by the surrender 
of the Hero of the Nile to the wife of the British Ambassador. 
He outwits Villeneuve, to be himself outwitted by Frail 
Emma of Edgeware Row. 

THE splendid sinner never lacks apologists and 
not much reflection is needed to suggest an 
explanation. The sin that does not appeal to us is 
the one we deem unpardonable ; we can find for- 
giveness for faults when we understand the ante- 
cedent temptation. It is commonly through ex- 
cess of love, or of ambition, that the heroic and 
romantic figure errs, and those, in due degree, are 
generous and ennobling passions, to whose vitalising 
energy no soul is so dense as to be quite impervious. 
Nevertheless, we must not lose sight of proportions. 
' Love and ambition draw the devil's coach,' said 
the poet wisely, and the house to whose courtyard 
they travel is the home of the devil — hell. 

The reminder is not untimely at the point now 
reached in the narrative of our heroine's adventures. 
Her present situation as the central figure of a 

brilliant court is so dazzling, her influence in the 

251 



252 Nelson's Legacy 

impending collision of armed nations so amazing, 
her reputation as the virtuous wife of an old man 
so unblemished, that one on the level plain of life, 
turning wondering eyes from the pit whence she 
sprang to the peak she has won, has an inclination 
to disregard the weaknesses, the extravagances, 
the immoralities of her earlier years, and even to 
harbour for a moment the envious, dangerously 
wicked, thought that such success may be justi- 
fication of any fall from virtue, however frequent, 
however far. But wait, and count no man happy 
until he be dead. ' / myself have seen the ungodly 
in great power ; and flourishing like a green hay 
tree. I went by, and lo, he was gone : I sought him, 
hut his place could nowhere he found. ^ When we 
shall write finis to this book, these are the words 
that will ring dominant in our ears. 

Beyond doubt this was the moment of our 
Emma's zenith, and it presaged her great fall. 
Nelson was coming. Presently it was to seem that 
all her experience and all her powers were given 
her for this end : the subjugation of one who else- 
where proved himself unconquerable. To explain 
the situation we must, however, glance aside from 
Emma for the space of a paragraph. 

Resenting the tyranny of the new Republican 
Government of France, the inhabitants of Toulon 
had recently made overtures to Lord Hood to take 



Nelson's Legacy 253 

them under his protection, and, assisted perhaps 
by treachery on the part of Admiral Trogoff, the 
English admiral took possession of that place in 
the name of King Louis XVII. A military force 
being immediately necessary. Lord Hood resolved 
to apply to the Neapolitan Government. He 
despatched Captain Horatio Nelson of the Aga- 
memnon on a special mission to Sir William Hamil- 
ton, asking him to use his influence to procure ten 
thousand troops upon the instant. 

The reception of Captain Nelson by King 
Ferdinand was gracious in the extreme, His Majesty 
sailing out to meet him, and inviting him almost 
daily during his stay in the capital. At a banquet 
he was placed at the King's right hand, before the 
English Ambassador and all the nobles present ; 
a gala was given at San Carlo in honour of his 
squadron and provisions were generously lavished 
on his crew, who for near nineteen weeks had not 
had a morsel of fresh meat or vegetables. 

With such a preamble it is hardly necessary to 
add that Captain Nelson succeeded perfectly in 
his mission, and six thousand troops were des- 
patched to Toulon. Whilst the purport of his 
visit was being achieved, he was free to enjoy all 
the hospitality that might be offered him. He 
was lodged in the Embassy, in the room prepared 
for Prince Augustus, and both there, and at the 



254 Nelson's Legacy 

Court of Caserta, he had daily opportunities of 
consulting with the Ministers and informing him- 
self of the state of affairs in that part of the Mediter- 
ranean. 

But what is more especially relevant in this 
narrative, he was brought into relations of the 
closest personal intimacy with Sir William Hamil- 
ton, and incidentally his lady. 

At the time of their first meeting, Nelson's 
genius had still to be proved to the world. What 
fired Emma was not his genius, but his denseness 
to what was required of him as a guest at the 
Embassy. The world was at Emma's feet, victim 
to her charms, either ravished with her singing, 
enraptured with her ' Attitudes,' or lost in admir- 
ation of her understanding. So they all told her, 
and she believed them all. That the fleshpots of 
Egypt— in other words, the boundless hospitality 
of the Embassy — had any share in the enthusiasm 
she excited was past her credence. Her head was 
completely turned with her position, the Queen's 
confidences, and Sir William's foolish fondness. 
It seemed inevitable that the much-sought-after 
English officer would folloAV in the wake of his 
betters, and declare his passion. But Nelson was 
in Naples on business, and had no eyes for any- 
thing but his ten thousand troops. With him in 
his suite was his stepson, one Josiah Nisbet. 



Nelson's Legacy 255 

Josiah would lounge willingly in Emma's boudoir 
whilst his captain was out on affairs of State, and 
it was to him that Emma must perforce exhibit 
her attractions. 

* Lady Hamilton has been wonderfully kind and 
good to Josiah,' Nelson reported to his wife, to 
whom he wrote regularly. ' She is a young woman 
of amiable manners, and who does honour to the 
station to which she is raised.' 

He had no presentiment of what this ' young 
woman of amiable manners ' would become to him 
in the future. Amorous adventure was not for 
him ; he was a faithful husband, and, young as 
he was made a good and careful stepfather. 
Josiah had been spoiled by his mother, as is the 
way of widows with only sons, and was something 
of a lout, with a greater taste for the bottle than 
for work. Nelson thought Lady Hamilton was 
having a good influence upon Josiah, and that 
those lounging hours in her boudoir would prove 
beneficial to his character. He told her so one 
day, quite simply and candidly. It was at a 
banquet he found the opportunity. 

' I wanted to thank you for your kindness to 
my stepson, but occasion has not served me until 
now,' he began, almost as soon as they were 
seated. 

' He is a dear boy,' she answered ; ' a little 



256 Nelson's Legacy 

wanting in manner, perhaps, and his education 
has halted, but I am learning him a little French.' 
She turned her lustrous eyes upon Nelson. 

' The Queen desired the English officers should 
have every attention, but Captain Nelson is all 
taken up with business,' she went on, artlessly. 

' Or he had given himself the pleasure of hear- 
ing Lady Hamilton sing. But I have found time 
to envy Josiah,' he added gallantly. She was 
quick to reply that she would sing for him pre- 
sently, that very evening. She wanted him to 
talk about her amazing talents, but he spoke 
instead of his wife's anxiety for her son, and a 
little of politics. Then they both grew enthusiastic 
about the Queen : Emma, because next to herself, 
her royal friend was her favourite topic of con- 
versation ; Nelson, because to champion the Queen 
and her cause seemed to bring him nearer to the 
one object of his ambition. He wanted to engage 
with the French fleet, and to destroy it. Beyond 
the beautiful face of his hostess he saw the ships, 
his and theirs, and heard the sound of guns. Emma 
assumed a great knowledge of the Queen's views, 
and Nelson believed every word she said. That 
her vanity was piqued because he paid her so little 
attention is undoubted. After dinner it was for 
him she sang her songs and posed, but to no pur- 
pose. Nelson gave her a perfunctory attention ; 



Nelson's Legacy 257 

his best was given to Sir William, to whom he 
talked strategy, and of Napoleon's schemes. 

When Sir William came into her bed-chamber 
that night he said, ' My love, that is a very remark- 
able young man.' 

' Did he say anything to you about my 
" Sappho " or my " Eurydice " ? ' she asked 
eagerly. 

' He had a complete plan of the ports, and a 
scheme to intercept the French ships. . . .' 

But Emma was impatient. ' And my singing ; 
did he think my voice was as good as Nella's ? 
Count Pavlo says it is much stronger, and would 
have a greater success at the Opera House. . . .' 

Sir William agreed with Count Pavlo, and said 
all and more than could be expected of the fondest 
and most uxorious husband, but he could not tell 
her that Captain Nelson had agreed or disagreed 
with him, he had talked only of the ships. 

Emma's vanity was outraged. Again and again 
in the week that followed she essayed to provoke 
the little English captain, who had captured all 
hearts by his earnestness, into betraying some 
more personal interest in her, or her multiform 
accomplishments and charms. It was all in vain. 
War clouds were ever more lowering, and Nelson 
enwrapt in them. He was a patriot before he 
became a lover, and after. The wife of the 



258 Nelson's Legacy 

English Ambassador was very beautiful and very 
winning, but his own heart was with the 
Agamemnon. 

For twelve days Nelson remained in Naples, 
engaged with Sir William or the Queen, learning all 
they could tell him. The Queen openly admitted 
that she had ' fell in love with him.' Maria Carolina 
knew, and Sir William Hamilton knew, long before 
Emma or the world realised, that there was a 
great spirit enshrined in that little feeble body. 
It shone through his blue eyes, lingered round his 
sensitive mouth. 

* The age has found its man,' Sir William told 
Emma. Emma pouted, and renewed her coquetries 
with the great little man's stepson. Before he 
sailed. Nelson spoke to her about it again. 

' You have been the saving of him,' he told 
her, looking his gratitude. Then, because he found 
it in his, he kissed her hand. 

* 'Twas only your stepson has cared for my 
company,' she answered in her softest and most 
cooing of voices. 

' There is one who could not have had enough 
of it, if Duty had not called him elsewhere,' Nelson 
replied. For he was a sailor, and, although no 
squire of dames, alive to their charms. 

' Would that / had been Duty,' sighed Emma. 

' Then Nelson would never have been absent 



Nelson's Legacy 259 

from his post,' he exclaimed, regarding her more 
attentively than ever before. He was bewildered 
by her sigh and pensive air, flattered ; caught at 
the last moment, though he knew it not, in the 
toils that were to bind him. 

' You and me would have been friends if you 
had not been over-occupied ? ' Emma asked, wist- 
fully. It was then he seemed to see her for the 
first time. She was in a brocaded dress, her fine 
kerchief not whiter than the bosom it only half 
concealed. A long ringlet had escaped and fell 
over her shoulder. Her eyes were glistening and 
spelled forlornness at his going ; her beautiful 
mouth trembled. 

' I have wanted to be friends with you, but you 
have shut yourself up with the Queen and Sir 
William.' He was quite overcome that she 
should have wanted his friendship, and he not 
known it. 

' I thought you were wrapt up in Lieutenant 
Nisbet,' he stammered. 

' When Nelson was in the Embassy ? ' she 
exclaimed. 

' If ever I come to Naples again . . . ' 

' Ah ! then you will come to Naples again ! ' 

Her smile was exquisite. And now it was she 
who took his hand and held it, exclaiming in her 
extravagant way : 



26o Nelson^s Legacy 

' I know it, I feel it, this hand will save the 
Queen, and save the country. Then Emma will 
hold it, kiss it ' — she suited the action to the 
word — ' and call out that every one may hear : 
This is the hand of Horatio Nelson, the Saviour 
of Italy.' 

She added more, so much more that he blushed 
to hear it. Her own eloquence had ever the power 
to rouse her to greater. She had caught the 
universal belief in him, and now she poured it 
forth. No man is insensible to flattery from a 
beautiful woman, and this one was peerless. Her 
speech inflamed him, their eyes met ; hers were the 
colour of the Mediterranean ; he was caught by 
their blue depths, held. She had her art, and let 
him see that as it was with him, so it was with 
her ; there arose between them on the instant, 
impalpable, but unmistakable, that for which there 
is but one name. He turned a little pale ; she 
grew a little red. There were steps outside, and 
the sound of voices ; they had come to fetch him, 
the boats were waiting. She stepped toward him 
impulsively, crying again : ' You will come back 
to Naples ? ' She laid her hand upon his arm. 
Nelson was never a laggard. 

' But I have been blind, blind,' he cried. ' How 
beautiful you are ! ' 

' Oh, Nelson ! ' she fluttered in his arms. 



Nelson's Legacy 261 

That was all, then, for they were no longer 
alone. But she knew she had won, and need not 
be jealous of the Queen, nor of the ships. When 
her ringlets escaped, and she let the kerchief on 
her bosom slip, when her eyes were bright and her 
voice soft, 'twas no man could resist her. And if 
Nelson was, as Sir William said, ' the man for the 
hour,' it was not to the Queen he looked any 
longer for encouragement. 

The British squadron weighed anchor and 
Emma followed its captain in her thoughts. As 
indeed did many another, although from different 
reasons. 

The Queen, desponding because of the growing 
unrest of the populace and the serious encroach- 
ments of Buonaparte, heard from her confidante 
there was no doubt that Captain Nelson would 
keep the enemy engaged until Naples was safe. 
Emma could be more enthusiastic for a man than 
for a cause. Nelson would secure the command 
of the Mediterranean, Emma had never a doubt of 
it. The kiss he had left upon her lips had sealed 
the promise of his return, for who that had sipped 
could refrain from drinking ? She talked of policy 
but dreamed of love. She was young and Captain 
Nelson was young ; Sir William was growing 
old. She animated her royal mistress with 
her optimism. They all believed in Captain 



262 Nelson's Legacy 

Nelson. Emma had no doubt of his prowess ; 
Captain Nelson' had no misgivings as to his 
fleet. 

But at first, and for quite a long time, there 
was difficulty in persuading the Ministers in London 
to the same view. Many months were wasted, 
months of turbulence among the people and of 
ever-growing anxiety in the Court of Naples, ere 
Nelson was commissioned for that expedition 
which set the seal upon his glory. 

Acton heard of Buonaparte's oath to set more 
kings apacking, and make the Sicilies republics 
also. Sedition had been sown broadcast over the 
Peninsula and the harvest was nearly ripe for the 
sickle. Naples might be at peace with France, 
but the latest communication from the Republic 
to the Kingdom was couched in precisely the lan- 
guage of a highwayman, ' Deliver up your money, 
or I will blow out your brains.' Only on payment 
of an exorbitant sum would the Directory guar- 
antee immunity. Acton begged Sir William Hamil- 
ton to lay these facts before Lord St. Vincent, and 
plead for succour without an instant's delay. With 
the help of an English expedition the Kingdom 
could be saved ; without it the Two Sicilies would 
follow the rest of Italy into French hands. Surely 
England could not contemplate that with in- 
difference ? But it was only after long delay 



Nelson's Legacy 263 

Grenville and his fellow-ministers agreed that 
England could not. 

Nelson eventually received his commission. 
Horatio Nelson, Saviour of Great Britain and the 
Continent, as he was soon to be acclaimed, was 
appointed Admiral of the Fleet and launched at 
length on that great adventure of which the fame 
will never die. 

He arrived with fourteen sail on June 16th, 
and, himself proceeding in the Vanguard to Capri, 
sent Captain Troubridge of the Mutine to make 
certain requisitions from the British Ambassador 
at Naples. The situation was sufficiently deli- 
cate. Nelson had been provisioned for little more 
than three months. He had instructions to take 
in stores and water in any Mediterranean port, 
compelling acquiescence by arms if necessary. His 
Government had likewise instructed Sir William 
Hamilton to ask the free and unlimited admission 
of their ships into Sicilian ports and the provisions 
and supplies usually afforded by an ally. 

The Neapolitan Government was thus placed 
on the horns of a dilemma. For the clause in their 
treaty with France still obtained, precluding the 
admission into any Sicilian harbour of more than 
four British men-of-war at one and the same time. 
Violation of this term of the compact, specifically 
provided by Buonaparte's astuteness, in anti- 



264 Nelson's Legacy 

cipation of the very event that liad now come to 
pass, might be justifiably regarded as an act of 
war against France, entaihng not only war with 
that power, but final rupture of the tentative 
negotiations for an alliance now proceeding with 
the Austrian Government. On the other hand, 
to withhold this first necessary service would be 
to stultify their own action in bringing the British 
squadron to Neapolitan waters. 

Then it was there happened one of those in- 
cidents upon which, although they are never 
officially known, and are never recorded in des- 
patches, the history of a great campaign has turned 
more than once in the annals of war. Nelson 
sent Captain Troubridge to Naples to make 
the necessary requisition. The Ministers met 
and met again, debated, procrastinated, doubted. 
Captain Troubridge grew impatient. ' If there is 
any difficulty, urge Sir William Hamilton to use 
his influence,' had been Nelson's instructions. Sir 
William was laid up with another attack of malarial 
fever. But it was an open secret that his beau- 
tiful wife had the ear of the Queen. Emma's 
inflammable heart had been full of Nelson ever 
since his departure ; she was eager to do him a 
service and placed herself entirely at Captain 
Troubridge's disposal. 

She sought her husband on his sick-bed and 



Nelson's Legacy 265 

he approved and dictated her action. He himself 
wrote to Nelson, Emma supporting him whilst he 
held the pen, and she gave the missive afterwards 
to Troubridge. ' You will receive from Emma 
herself what will do the business and procure all 
you want.' 

Then, hurrying to the Queen, to whose apart- 
ment she had access, Emma explained the needs 
of the British fleet, imploring her to use her own 
authority and write an autograph permit for Nel- 
son's use. Her Majesty needed no urging, although 
Sir John Acton might. Now the women laid their 
heads together and found means to move him. 
The way of a man with a maid is not more secret 
nor more certain than the way of a Queen with 
her Minister. 

Once things began to move. Captain Troubridge 
and Emma between them conducted matters with 
a quarter-deck directness of manner that ignored 
all diplomatic usage. With the Queen's secret 
authorisation, and God knows what of other 
consideration, they secured from Sir John Acton 
a General Order, written in that Minister's own 
hand, but in the name of His Sicilian Majesty, 
directed to the governors of every port in Sicily, 
to supply the English ships with all sorts of pro- 
visions, and, in case of an action, to permit the 
British seamen, sick or wounded, to be landed and 



266 Nelson's Legacy 

taken proper care of in their ports. On the face 
of it, this was an order difficult of being explained 
away in the event of unpleasant complications. 
Acton was full of misgivings. He could consult 
no one, for Sir William Hamilton was hors de com- 
bat, and from everyone else the whole transaction 
was to be kept a profound secret. 

Elated and happy, and deeming herself the 
prime mover in the intrigue, and certainly she 
was the medium for its furtherance, Emma wrote 
to Nelson : 

* Dear Sir, — I send you a letter I have received this 
moment from the Queen. Kiss it, and send it back by 
Bowen, as I am bound not to give any of her letters. 
Ever your Emma.' 

This was the first time she had written him, 
and the signature must be taken to represent the 
potential rather than the actual state of affairs 
between them. She was excited and emotional, 
and ever impulsive. Nelson's permission to land 
and procure what he would for the fleet meant 
that she would see him again, and she was all 
agog for new experience, more particularly since 
Sir William was becoming enfeebled by his repeated 
illnesses. 

* I only wish to get sight of Buonaparte and his 
army, for by God we shall lick them,' Troubridge 



Nelson's Legacy 267 

boasted. And Nelson said no less of the French 
navy. 

Nelson lost no time in replying to Emma's 
letter. He wrote : 

' My dear Lady Hamilton, — I have kissed the Queen's 
letter ; pray say I hope for the honour of kissing her hand 
when no fears will intervene, assure her Majesty that no 
person has her felicity more at heart than myself, and 
that the sufferings of her family will be a Tower of Strength 
on the day of Battle. Fear not the event, God is with 
us, God bless you and Sir William, pray say I cannot 
stay to answer his letter. Ever yours faithfully, 

Horatio Nelson.' 

An hour later the squadron weighed anchor 
for Syracuse. 

At that historic spot everything had ever been 
conducted hitherto in accordance with the most 
rigid rules of precedent. But by the very circum- 
stances of his arrival Nelson gave the Governor 
convincing evidence that he and precedent had 
nothing in common. For, in spite of the fact that 
for centuries no large ships had attempted the 
passage into the great port, owing to the channel 
having become silted up, Nelson determined to 
make the venture. Leading the way himself, and 
taking constant soundings as he moved, he brought 
his entire squadron to excellent anchorage abreast 
of the Marina, which would afford inimitable 



268 Nelson's Legacy 

facilities for the later carrying of stores aboard. 
This achievement in navigation filled all who be- 
held it with amazement, and the bewilderment of 
the authorities was little less when the Admiral 
took no notice of the officials sent to remind him 
that the number of his ships exceeded that which 
they were permitted to entertain. 

He waited until he was in comfortable posses- 
sion of the place before consenting even to discuss his 
right of entry. Then, however, to the Governor's 
great astonishment and some fear, he produced Sir 
John Acton's general instructions, over-riding all 
treaties, and authorising him to assist the British 
ships in every possible way. 

Nelson was perhaps not surprised to find the 
order questioned and the Governor vacillating. 
Acton had endeavoured to save himself in the case 
of eventualities. The Governor declared a sen- 
tence in the despatch proved that admission was 
not intended to be thrown open to the entire 
squadron ; and Nelson might yet have been com- 
pelled to go empty away had it not been for the 
* private instructions ' from the Queen which Lady 
Hamilton had forwarded to him. This letter, 
when produced, as it now was, had the full virtue 
of an ' open sesame,' and although the Governor 
of Syracuse made some protestations of having 
been overruled by show of force, and carried his 



Nelson's Legacy 269 

protest so far as to decline to return the official 
visit on board ship, he made it plain that these 
protestations were merely formal and for the 
purpose of being reported to King Ferdinand, who 
was in entire ignorance of his royal consort's action 
in the matter. Privately he assured the English 
captains that he was delighted to see them. He 
made good his words by fulfilling Nelson's orders 
to the last orange, and by offering the whole fleet 
the warmest and most generous hospitality that 
his not unhmited resources permitted. 

Two days later, with his wants amply supplied, 
and gratified by the attentions paid to him by 
everybody. Nelson set out to find the French fleet, 
having first written a confident and grateful note 
to the ambassador and his lady : 

' My dear Friends, — Thanks to your exertions, we 
have victualled and watered; and surely watering at 
the fountains of Arethusa we must have victory. We 
shall sail with the first breeze, and be assured I shall 
return either crowned with laurel, or covered with cypress.' 

Another week, and Nelson found the French 
fleet— sixteen sail of the line and four frigates, 
besides a larger number of gunboats — lying 
anchored in Aboukir Bay, sheltered by the cape, 
and so strongly secured on the outside that the 
guns on the inner side were neither manned nor 
ready. Not expecting the English, the French 



270 Nelson's Legacy 

ships were not cleared for action, and even when 
they saw their enemy's squadron, they looked to 
have until the following day to prepare. It was 
already late in the evening when Nelson caught 
sight of them, and they knew he could scarcely 
lay alongside before sundown, when, because of 
the latitude, darkness would fall instantly. But 
Nelson's way was swift as Nelson's touch was 
firm. He had discussed every possible position 
with his captains daily during the voyage, and 
only the signal to attack the van and centre was 
necessary. At once the English fleet stood in ; 
five of the ships engaged the French on the 
inside, and five, including Nelson's ship, the 
Vanguard, on the outside, where the fire would 
be hottest. 

Taken by surprise, the Frenchmen lost their 
opportunity of pounding the Englishmen while 
navigating for position, and by the time they 
really got to work the battle was half won. In 
the first ten minutes three French men-of-war were 
dismasted, and in less than a couple of hours five 
were taken. At ten o'clock the huge French flag- 
ship U Orient, 120 guns, blew up, the magazines 
being reached by the fire that had been burning 
for some time, illuminating the whole awful scene, 
but which her crew had been prevented from 
extinguishing by Captains Hallewell and Ball of 



Nelson's Legacy 271 

the Swiftsure and Alexander^ who, coming late 
into action — having been some miles ahead of 
the others when the Zealous signalled the 
enemy —trained their upper guns on the burning 
poop. 

Awed by the tremendous explosion, both sides 
ceased firing, and strenuous efforts were made by 
Nelson's sailors to save some of the hundreds of 
Frenchmen who leaped into the sea from the 
blazing vessel. But the battle was resumed again, 
and continued until after three in the morning. 
By five o'clock only two French men-of-war were 
flying their colours, and at the close of that second 
day, twenty-four hours after the engagement began, 
the French fleet was wiped out. 

' Almighty God having blessed His Majesty's 
arms with victory, the Admiral intends returning 
public thanksgiving at two o'clock this day ; and 
he recommends every ship doing the same as soon 
as convenient.' 

Such was the memorandum issued by Nelson 
to all his captains. He was a God-fearing man, 
like most sailors, and the more so by reason of his 
parentage and training. He issued this order whilst 
in the busiest press of repairing the damage sus- 
tained by his ships in the late battle. Although 
wounded he took his place on the quarter-deck 
whilst the Rev. Mr. Comyn conducted the service, 



272 Nelson's Legacy 

not a little to the surprise, and something to the 
admiration, of the prisoners of war. 

It was not until after prayers were over that 
he prepared his despatches, not forgetting one to 
Sir William Hamilton, simply announcing that the 
French fleet had been destroyed. To sink as many 
of the French ships as were past salving and 
secure the rest as prizes was his next step. After 
which he set sail for Naples, quietly ti'iumphant, a 
little expectant, anxious above all things to see 
how Lady Hamilton would take the news that he 
had justified her faith in him. 

Emma's letters — one bearing the wishes of her 
heart and soul that victory might be his, the other 
sending the Queen's authorisation for supplies — 
had been the last to reach Nelson ere he left 
Aboukir Bay. Her letter of gratulation on his 
triumph was the first to reach him on his return. 

* My dear, dear Sir, — How shall I begin, what shall 
I say to you. 'Tis impossible I can write for since last 
Monday I am delerious with joy, and assure you I have 
a fevour caused by agitation and pleasure. God ! what 
a victory ! Never, never has there been anything half 
so glorious, so compleat. I fainted when I heard the 
joyfull news, and fell on my side and am hurt but am 
now well of that. I shou'd feil it a glory to die in such 
a cause. No, I wou'd not like to die till I see and embrace 
the Victor of the Nile ! How shall I describe to you the 
transports of Maria Carolina, 'tis not possible. She fainted 



Nelson's Legacy 273 

and kissed her husband, her children, walked about the 
room, cried kissed and embraced every person near her, 
exclaiming, Oh brave Nelson oh God bless and protect 
our brave deliverer, oh, Nelson Nelson what do we not 
owe to you, oh Victor Saviour of Italy, oh, that my swoln 
heart cou'd now tell him personally what we owe to him ! 
You may judge, my dear Sir, of the rest, but my head 
will not permit me to tell you half of the rejoicing. The 
Neapolitans are mad with joy, and if you wos here now 
you wou'd be killed with kindness. Sonets on sonets, 
illuminations, rejoicings ; not a French dog dare show 
his face. How I glory in the honner of my Country 
and my Countryman ! I walk and tread in the air with 
pride, felling I was born in the same land with the victor 
Nelson and his gallant band. I send you two letters 
from my adorable queen. One was written to me the day 
we received the glorious news, the other yesterday. Keep 
them, as they are in her own handwriting. I have kept 
copies only, but I fell that you ought to have them. If 
you had seen our meeting after the battle, but I will 
keep it all for your arrival. I cou'd not do justice to her 
felling nor to my own with writing it ; and we are pre- 
paring your apartment against you come. I hope it will 
not be long for Sir William and I are so impatient to 
embrace you. I wish you cou'd have seen our house the 
3 nights of illumination. 'Tis, 'twas covered with your 
glorious name. Their were three thousand lamps, and 
their should have been 3 millions if we had had time. 
All the English vie with each other in celebrating this 
most gallant and ever memorable victory. Sir William 
is ten years younger since the happy news, and he now 
only wishes to see his friend to be completely happy. 
How he glories in you when your name is mentioned. 
s 



274 Nelson's Legacy 

He cannot contain his joy. For God's sake come to 
Naples soon. We receive so many sonets and letters of 
congratulation. I send you some of them to show you 
how your success is felt here. How I felt for poor Trou- 
bridge. He must have been so angry on the sandbank, 
so brave an officer ! In short, I pity those who were not 
in the battle. I wou'd have been rather an English 
powder monkey, or a swab in that great victory, than 
an Emperor out of it, but you will be so tired of all this. 
Write or come soon to Naples, and rejoice your ever 
sincere and oblidged friend Emma Hamilton. 

' The Queen at this moment sent a Dymond Ring to 
Captain Hoste, six buts of wine, 2 casks, for the offices, 
and every man on board a guinea each. Her letter is in 
English and comes as from an unknown person, but a 
well-wisher to our country and an admirer of our gallant 
Nelson. As war is not yet declared with France, she 
cou'd not show herself so openly as she wished, but she 
as done so much and rejoiced so very publickly, that all 
the world sees it. She bids me to say that she longs more 
to see you than any woman with child can long for any- 
thing she takes a fancy to, and she shall be for ever un- 
happy if you do not come. God bless you my dear, dear 
friend. 

' My dress from head to foot is all Nelson ; even my 
shawl is in Blue with gold anchors all over. My ear 
rings are Nelson's anchors ; in short, we are be-Nelsoned 
all over. I send you some sonets but I must have taken 
a ship on purpose to send you all written on you. Once 
more, God bless you. My mother desires her love to 
you. I am so sorry to write in such a hurry. I am 
afraid you will not be able to read this scrawl.' 



Nelson's Legacy 275 

In such torrent of broken and illiterate sen- 
tences did Emma give vent to the emotions that 
possessed her and warn Nelson of the nature of 
the public reception that awaited him. 

Nelson, shaken by his wound and ensuing fever, 
simple and sincere in his affections, treasured the 
letter without seeing what its self-revelation por- 
tended. 

It was indeed a royal reception he received in 
Naples. The royal barge, commanded, as ironical 
fate would have it, by that Caracciolo who, later, 
was to meet the Admiral in such very different 
circumstances, put out from the Bay, carrying the 
King and Princess Clementina, the Court, and Sir 
William and Lady Hamilton, and followed by a 
vast flotilla of small boats, joyous with music, gay 
with flags and flowers. But already it was neither 
King, nor Queen, nor people that counted first 
with him. 

' Alongside came my honoured friends,' Nelson re- 
ported to his wife ; * the scene in the boat was terribly 
affecting : up flew her Ladyship, and exclaiming, " O 
God, is it possible ! " she fell into my arms more dead 
than alive. Tears, however, soon set matters to rights, 
and then came the King. The scene was, in its way, 
as interesting : he took me by the hand, calling me his 
deliverer and his preserver, with every other expression 
of kindness. In short, all Naples calls me Nosiro Libera- 
tore. My greeting from the lower classes was truly affect- 



276 Nelson's Legacy 

ing. I hope some day to have the pleasure of introducing 
you to Lady Hamilton, she is one of the very best women 
in the world, she is an honour to her sex. Her kindness, 
with Sir William's to me, is more than I can express. 
I am in their house ; and I may now tell you, it required 
all the kindness of my friends to set me up. . . . ' 

He was, indeed, in a state of health to occasion 
alarm. He had been struck in the head by a 
heavy splinter during the recent battle and had 
not only lost a great quantity of blood but suffered 
a slight concussion of the brain. 

From the landing-stage near the Castel 
Nuovo he proceeded in a state coach to the 
Embassy at the lower end of the Strada S. 
Caterina, and there, supported by the arm of 
the British Ambassadress, he painfully ascended 
the great staircase, and was conducted to a suite 
of apartments commanding a magnificent prospect 
of the Bay. 

He deemed it a very kindly thought of Lady 
Hamilton's, revealing more clearly than a more 
important matter might have done the wonderful 
knowledge she had of the workings of his mind 
that the bed was so placed that whilst lying in 
it he had the whole fleet under his eye, and thus 
was relieved of that nervous anxiety about his 
responsibilities which distresses so many invalids 
even though they know it without basis in reason. 



Nelson's Legacy 277 

With his mind at rest about his fleet, Nelson's 
body could rest. 

This was Emma's opportunity and one of which 
she had no scruple to avail herself. The great hero 
was entirely in her hands. He had been at first 
unconscious of her charms, unimpregnable to her 
arts, entrenched and safe in his devotion to duty. 
Now in his weakness she brought all her armoury 
to bear upon him, and he had no available defence. 
Constant headaches lowered his mentality, the 
fever played such havoc with his digestive organs 
that asses' milk was the only nourishment he 
was permitted to take for some days. But the 
magnetic current that passed through Emma's 
hand as she smoothed his long hair or cooled his 
hot forehead, worked a miracle of healing. In 
seven days from his landing he was sufficiently 
restored to be present at the superb entertain- 
ment given at the Embassy in honour of his 
birthday. 

It was an entertainment which might have 
satisfied the vanity and extravagance of Helioga- 
balus himself. Covers were laid for eighty at the 
dinner with which the Ambassador's hospitality 
began and which was attended by the whole of 
the Royal Family. A ball followed, thronged by 
some eighteen hundred of the rank and fashion 
of Naples. A supper, almost as magnificent as 



278 Nelson's Legacy 

the dinner, was set for the same number of persons. 
The most brilliant toilettes and jewels of the ladies, 
in conjunction with the naval, military, and diplo- 
matic uniforms of the men, provided a spectacle 
of incomparable splendour. A rostral column dis- 
played the names of all the hero's victories ; an 
ode in his honour was delivered and a special 
verse, celebrating him by name, was added to the 
National Anthem. Every ribbon, every button 
bore the magic word ' Nelson ' ; the whole service 
was marked ' H. N.' 

' Well might such a compliment fill me with 
vanity,' the Admiral wrote to his wife. 

But that was all he wrote of what was to prove 
the most momentous incident in his life. Never 
again was Nelson to write with candour and sim- 
plicity to her who bore his name, to whom he 
owed fidelity and allegiance. Emma's armoury 
had been brought into requisition and the first 
breach that it made was in his candour. He 
related nothing to his wife of a scene in which her 
son figured but ill. Yet the scene itself was re- 
markable and what it presaged has become 
historical. 

It will be remembered that Josiah Nisbet, a 
youth not ill-favoured, but wanting every quality 
that could commend him to the company among 
whom his stepfather's position brought him, had 



Nelson's Legacy 279 

been used by Emma as a means of attracting 
Captain Nelson to her side. She had played 
with him the part most familiar to her, the part 
of ' The Enchantress,' and, unhappily, she had 
played it only too well. When Nelson's illness 
gave him the invalid's privileges and Lady 
Hamilton sat long in his bed-chamber in order 
to superintend the nursing, Josiah, at first was 
only impatient ; then he grew sullen ; at length, 
before the week was over, he had become sus- 
picious. Suspicion breeds quickly in a mind like 
Josiah's. 

Naples was not jealous of female reputation, 
yet although there was common knowledge of 
Lady Hamilton's past, none of the unhappy story, 
as unfolded in these pages, had then reached 
Lieutenant Nisbet's ears. The night of the ball he 
heard the matter spoken of openly, and coupled with 
that old story was light jest and prophecy of what 
would come of Emma's attentions to the Hero of 
the Nile. Josiah was already sullen and suspicious, 
to-night he became inflamed with jealousy. He 
drank more than was good for him at the banquet, 
and with lowering brows and gathering anger, 
watched how, whilst Royalty was almost unheeded, 
and the Italian noblemen openly flouted or ignored, 
Emma talked to Nelson, laughed with Nelson, sat 
so close beside him that her bare shoulders touched 



28o Nelson's Legacy 

his epaulettes, made a show of nursing him, that 
she might direct his food and taste from his glass 
to see if his grog was mixed to his liking. The 
wrong done to him, Josiah Nisbet, by such conduct 
festered in him. Nelson was his mother's husband, 
and . . . just so had Lady Hamilton smiled on 
him. Now she seemed not to know he was there. 
The consciousness of her indifference embittered 
his remembrance of the past and made the present 
unbearable. 

All through the evening Emma was solicitous 
of Nelson's health. He was the recipient of com- 
pliments and speeches, stood for some time before 
the King, and then the Queen gave him a long 
interview. Ferdinand and Carolina combined in 
praises of Emma, many allusions were made to her 
devotion to him and her emotion when she heard 
of the great victory. Nelson had hardly recovered 
from his wound ; he was moved almost to tears 
by hearing of how the lovely Emma had been 
affected. 

When the Royalties left, although the revelry 
was at its height, Emma persuaded Nelson to her 
ante-chamber, there to rest and recuperate for the 
further exertion of speech-making and hand- 
shaking that would be required of him when the 
company departed. 

She had hardly settled him on the sofa, herself 



Nelson's Legacy 281 

placing the cushion under his wounded head, bend- 
ing over him to adjust it the better, when Josiah 
burst in. Emma was leaning solicitously over the 
invalid ; her wonderful shoulders, so cool and 
white, were near to his fevered lips. 

Josiah was the worse for drink, rude and un- 
mannerly at the best. 

' Let him alone,' he cried ; ' let him be, I tell 
you. I guessed what was going on. You're 
nothing more nor less than a . . . and he's my 
mother's husband.' 

He advanced upon her threateningly. Emma 
shrank back startled, taken at disadvantage. 
Nelson himself was dumbfounded for the moment 
by the apparition, then he struggled to his feet. 
Josiah was pouring forth coarse invective and 
abuse, accusing them both of commerce and what 
not. Nelson seized his stepson by the scruff of 
the neck, but the hero was enfeebled by illness 
and rage whilst Josiah had the strength of French 
brandy in him. There was no saying how the 
scuffle might have gone ; Emma had both hands 
to her ears, but was alternate scarlet and pale at 
hearing herself characterised in such terms. And 
to her credit be it said, she was really alarmed 
for Nelson's safety ; his wound was like to burst 
out again, and in his anger he might be seized 
by an apoplexy. 



282 Nelson's Legacy 

Happily Captain Troubridge was aware of 
Josiah Nisbet's condition, and now, hearing a 
noise, broke in upon them even less ceremoniously 
than Josiah himself had done, although to a better 
end. Before Emma had time to be ashamed lest 
he, too, should hear what the drunken oaf was 
calling out about her, and whilst she was as yet 
only conscious of gladness at the interruption, 
Captain Troubridge seized hold of the graceless 
lieutenant and was carrying him from the 
room : 

' You'll go back to your ship this very night ; 
you're not fit to be ashore,' she heard the captain 
say, with much more not to be repeated, charac- 
terising Josiah's conduct and himself in language 
that savoured more of the forecastle than of the 
poop. 

No sooner were they alone than Emma fell 
a-crying, and on her knees by the sofa. ' What 
must Nelson think of me, think of his Emma ? ' 
she said, and hid her face. He was touched by 
her tears and inflamed by her nearness to him. 
He vowed in a husky voice that he thought she 
was an angel. 

She became even more angelic in his eyes when 
she pleaded for Josiah, who. Nelson swore, should 
be strung up and flogged, dismissed his ship, or 
court-martialled. Nelson, who had been beside 



Nelson's Legacy 283 

himself with rage, was soon beside himself with 
something else. Emma was so distraught by what 
had occurred, and the accusations that had been 
brought against her, that she would have made 
any man compassionate. When he had cursed 
himself for having occasioned the scene, and she 
had cried out, between her sobs, that if all the 
world was to calumniate her because she had been 
in his room, she would still have nursed him, the 
end was in sight. She went on to say wildly, 
what did she care for her reputation compared to 
his health, but perhaps he feared what the world 
might think, and would rather be alone when in 
fever. . . . ? Nelson answered hastily, without 
stopping to reflect, that neither ill nor well did he 
care to be alone. . . . And then they both 
reddened, and surprised each other's eyes. 

The two inflammables were in contact, the one 
on fire with chivalry, the other tinder to his touch. 
How long could it be before the conflagration 
should occur that would burn out everything 
between them save that which made them one ? 
History deponeth it was that very night, the night 
long remembered for the grand ball at the Embassy, 
that Emma, going into Nelson's room to inquire 
after his wound, or to show how little she heeded 
Josiah, and the world's opinion, stayed first to be 
reassured, and afterward, at Nelson's request, 



284 Nelson's Legacy 

because he was sleepless ; that then they con- 
versed, and she learnt his wife was older than 
himself and unsympathetic to him, and much 
more that led to intimacy. 

In any case, from that night dates the change 
in their correspondence and the alteration in their 
manner to each other that set the tongues a- wagging 
that were never afterwards to be silenced. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Revolution spreads from France to Italy, and Nelson becomes 
anxious for the personal safety of the King and Queen. 
Emma assists him in persuading them to flight. They set 
sail for Palermo in the midst of a great storm, during which 
one of the royal children expires in Emma's arms. Her 
courage and capacity arouse Nelson to enthusiasm and rivet 
his chains for ever. 

DURING the three following weeks in which the 
hero of the Nile continued to enjoy the hospit- 
ality of the British Embassy and the attentions of 
his hostess, he had every opportunity of ascertain- 
ing the precise nature of the malady from which 
the body politic of Naples was suffering. To the 
Englishman's hereditary hostility to the French- 
man, there was superadded the religious man's 
detestation of the revolutionary doctrines and 
pernicious Jacobinism of the new Government in 
Paris, which he believed to be antagonistic to the 
spirit of Christianity. Nelson refused to cry peace 
where there could be no peace. At this very time, 
recognising how little valuable to him was the 
assistance offered by the Neapolitan navy, and 
indeed by all our other allies in the Mediterranean, 

he wrote a declaration to the French commander 

285 



286 Nelson's Legacy 

at Malta characteristically candid, and untainted 
by malignity. 

' In addressing to you this letter ' [he wrote], ' con- 
taining my determination respecting the French now in 
Malta, I feel confident that you will not attribute it either 
to insolence, or impertinent curiosity, but to a wish of 
having my sentiments clearly understood. The present 
situation of Malta I am told is this, the inhabitants are 
in possession of all the Island except the town which is 
in your hands, and that the port is blocked by a squadron 
belonging to His Britannick Majesty. My objects are to 
assist the people of Malta in forcing you to abandon the 
Island that it may be delivered into the hands of its 
lawful Sovereign, and to get possession of the Gme. Tell, 
Diana and Justice. To accomplish these objects as 
speedily as possible I offer that on the delivery of the 
French ships to me, that all troops and seamen now in 
Malta shall be landed in France without the condition of 
their being prisoners of war. If my offers are rejected, 
or the French ships make their escape, notwithstanding 
my vigilance, I declare I will not enter or join in any 
capitulation which the General may hereafter be forced 
to enter into with the inhabitants of Malta, nor will I 
ever permit any which may be like the present, much 
less will I intercede for the lives or forgiveness of 
those who have betrayed their country. I beg leave 
to assure you that this is the determination of a British 
Admiral.' 

Reinforced by memories of what had happened 
so lately at Aboukir Bay — to which with native 
modesty this British Admiral made not the least 



Nelson's Legacy 287 

allusion — ^these quiet words carried the menace 
of heavy guns and could not fail to awaken in 
any brave bosom a desire for retaliation and 
revenge. Maria Carolina might try to conceal the 
fact, but she had aided and abetted Nelson in the 
revictualling of his fleet and thereby precipitated 
the annihilation of the French one, over which 
event she and her husband were now publicly 
rejoicing so loudly that the echo thundered in the 
ears of Garat, scowling behind the windows in the 
French ministry at Naples. He reported every- 
thing to the Directory, and Buonaparte took a 
rod from pickle wherewith to scourge the arro- 
gant Bourbon. He decreed that war should be 
carried to the heel of Italy, and all Italy brought 
to the heel of France. And until that actually 
occurred every excitation was to be applied] to 
the smouldering sedition of the Neapolitan people 
in order that King Ferdinand might be further 
embarrassed by all the troubles and perils of civil 
disturbance. Napoleon intended that the Kingdom 
of the Two Sicilies should be absorbed in the 
Ligurian Republic, and that Ferdinand should 
lose his throne by revolution if not by defeat 
in war. 

All this was clear to Nelson even before the 
event. He was now fully recovered of his fever 
and of his wounds, but not of the greatest that he 



288 Nelson's Legacy 

had sustained. Emma was gloriously happy, and 
completely enamoured of her new lover. She gave 
herself magnificently to Nelson, and now he held 
her miraculous. Already she had persuaded him 
he owed his Syracusan supplies and the Queen's 
countenance entirely to her influence. 

One may ask where was Sir William Hamilton 
while all this was going on ? Emma was clever 
enough to hoodwink her husband into the belief 
that it was the politics, and not the person of 
Nelson, that enraptured her. Sir William was 
easily persuaded ; he had never been vexed by 
jealousy, but only proud when his treasure was 
admired. And he, too, was absorbed in affairs of 
State, and in no humour for domestic altercation. 
If it pleased Emma to make herself conspicuous on 
all and every occasion with the English Admiral, 
it suited him, and the Court to which he was 
attached, to secure Nelson's allegiance to the 
Italian cause at any cost. 

' Nelson, you must never forsake the Queen ; 
I love the Queen,' Emma said solemnly. 

And Nelson believed her, not knowing it was 
Emma's own consequence she loved above every- 
thing, and thought to secure by her loyalty. In 
the first few weeks of such an intrigue as this 
upon which he was engaged with Lady Hamilton 
a man is scarcely in possession of all his faculties. 



Nelson's Legacy 289 

Of course he promised all she asked, and that 
he would safeguard Her Majesty's interests with 
his life. 

But he pointed out the difficulty of helping 
those who will not help themselves, and urged her 
to bring pressure upon the King and his ministers 
to stir them from their lethargy. This was counsel 
very congenial to her temper, and it was given 
greater effect by the inclination manifested just 
now in Vienna to take advantage of the discom- 
posure into which the defeat of their fleet had 
thrown the Directory. Austria made overtures to 
King Ferdinand to co-operate in a new war. With 
Emma influencing the Queen, and the Queen 
exerting all the pressure of which she was capable, 
the King, for once, displayed something approach- 
ing energy. He announced that he would put 
himself at the head of an army if one were pro- 
vided for him. Forty thousand young men, the 
flower of the country, volunteered immediately ; 
the poorest cities in Italy offered to contribute 
to the expenses of the campaign. With the stand- 
ing army, and these volunteers, a force of near 
seventy thousand men formed camp under the 
command of General Mack, who came from Vienna 
for that purpose. 

The hopes of Maria Carolina rose high ; these 
were measures in consonance with her proud 



290 Nelson's Legacy 

spirit. But her elation was short-lived. Mack 
was out-generalled, and further crippled by the 
inexperience of the volunteers. In the long 
desuetude from war of the regular troops the 
officers had become venal, and many of the men 
were cowards. The army entered Rome indeed, 
but not to hold it. The city was retaken and 
Ferdinand driven back to his own territories with 
the undignified rapidity of a rout. 

Nelson's valuation of the fighting qualities of 
the Neapolitans was low, although that had not 
prevented him from recommending the Neapolitan 
King to put them to the test. He said bluntly 
that His Majesty had his choice. Either to advance, 
trusting to God for His blessing on a just cause and 
be prepared to die, sword in hand, or to be kicked 
out of his kingdom ; for that one or the other of 
those things must happen. Ferdinand had tried 
the first alternative, but had neither conquered 
nor died. The moment was come now to con- 
template the second. The routed army, the dis- 
affected populace, Buonaparte's overpowering and 
continuous victories were enough to excite appre- 
hension in the stoutest heart. 

That strange trio. Sir William Hamilton, Nelson, 
and Emma, discussed the situation from every 
aspect. At the colloquy Sir William was dis- 
cursive and irresolute : 



Nelson's Legacy 291 

* I am waiting despatches from England. There 
had better be nothing attempted until I receive 
them,' was the speech that represented his atti- 
tude. But Nelson was keen that the Royal Family 
should be persuaded to flight before the fate that 
befell Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette was upon 
them. Emma was inflamed at the prospect of 
taking part in an historic adventure so marvel- 
lously dramatic. 

' Nelson is right,' she exclaimed enthusiastically. 
For had he not always proved his prescience ? 
The Royal Family must be persuaded away, 
forced away. Who so fitted for the task as 
Emma, with Nelson to help in the high enter- 
prise ? Sir William's feeble objections were over- 
ruled. And as for waiting for despatches from 
England, there was danger in every hour of delay. 
Emma was all on fire to seize an opportunity, 
incredible so short a time before, of playing a 
prominent part in royal drama. 

' Together we will save the Queen, Nelson,' she 
cried. She saw herself the centre of the stage on 
which the limelight of the world was turned. 
Nelson would take the part of hero in the drama, 
and the world should applaud them together. If, 
in her eagerness and sparkling eyes, her deference 
to his opinions and adoring humility, might be 
found a clue to the state of her feelings, Sir William 



292 Nelson's Legacy 

Hamilton at least gave no hint he observed any- 
thing unusual. Neither now, when the enterprise 
for conveying the Royal Family into safety was 
being discussed, nor for a long time afterwards. 
He had something of his nephew's reticence, 
although with a far greater generosity. 

The Queen herself seemed likely to provide 
the first obstacle in the way of the projected 
flight. Emma knew every working of that proud 
spirit, and believed she would be immovable by 
entreaty from herself alone : 

' Nelson, you must write a letter, and I will 
myself take it to the Queen ; she believes in your 
opinion ; she will do anything you advise her,' 
was her final decision. When Nelson said he 
thought 'twas to the King he should address him- 
self, she was quick to agree with him, but said he 
must send it by some other messenger. She 
blushed, and put on a pretty air, allowing 
Nelson to divine why a private interview with the 
King was an adventure she would rather not under- 
take. It was stale news to Sir William, but new 
to Nelson, who, far from exhibiting a husband's 
calm, had now, and always, a great inclination to 
jealousy. Emma was aware of it, and shrouded 
her past. She had no fear for the future, for one 
lover at a time had always sufficed her and Nelson's 
greatness was Nelson's safeguard. 



Nelson's Legacy 293 

But what she hinted, or what he read in her 
downcast eyes and blushing cheek when the King's 
name was mentioned, made him write with less 
sympathy than he might otherwise have done, 
albeit with no less frankness. The King had been 
unable to decide on action, once his army was 
defeated and himself stranded, and his ministers 
were in no better case. They had opened nego- 
tiations with this and the other Power, procras- 
tinated, shuffled, and planned impossibilities. 
Nelson now saw nothing for it but flight : 

' Should unfortunately this miserable Ruinous system 
of procrastination be persisted in I would recommend 
that all your property and persons are ready to embark 
at a very short notice. It will be my duty to look and 
provide for your safety, and with it (I am sorry to think 
it will be necessary) that of the amiable Queen of these 
kingdoms and her family. I have read with admiration 
her dignified and incomparable letter of September 1796. 
May the councils of this kingdom ever be guided by such 
sentiments of dignity, honour and justice. And may the 
words of the great Mr. Pitt be instilled into the ministry of 
this country — " The boldest measures are the safest" is 
the sincere wish of your etc. . . .' 

The letter was sent to the King, but it was 
the Queen who had to decide how its recommenda- 
tion should be treated. At first she was passion- 
ate in her opposition. To leave Naples was an 
admission of fear and failure, galling and intoler- 



294 Nelson's Legacy 

able to her high spirit. The rout of General Mack's 
army and the King's return to Naples, defeated 
and disconcerted, roi faineant and futile, left the 
Queen the man's part to play. So she told 
Emma ; and that she would play it where she 
was. 

' The French is knocking at the gates of the 
Palace,' Emma urged. She had been well coached ; 
and having conquered the Hero of the Nile, was 
prepared to do battle with such meaner foes as 
the beaten Bourbons. In truth, Revolution had 
raised its hydra head, and could not now be viewed 
without terror; it vomited blood and fire, belch- 
ing fury and spreading dismay. No crowned 
head was safe within the monster's reach. Maria 
Carolina had more than a woman's courage, but 
Emma had the art to sap it. What of the Dauphin 
of France, and the Dauphiness ? She had not her- 
self to consider, but her children, was Emma's 
argument. This took the Queen from her balance ; 
for whatever else may have been said of her and 
her morality, none has denied she was a good 
mother, and devoted to the interests of her off- 
spring. Therefore, although she still believed that 
flight would be regarded, and justly regarded, by 
the people and the lazzaroni as desertion in the 
face of the enemy, and would alienate their loyalty 
to the King whilst increasing their hatred of herself, 



Nelson's Legacy 295 

the Queen was brought at last to Hsten to Nelson's 
advice. 

And once she was brought to listen, it was not 
long before Nelson completed his plan, and Emma 
was helping to its execution. No time must be 
lost, for a rumour being circulated in Naples that 
the British Ambassador had formed the project 
of driving the King away from his people, the fury 
of the Neapolitans rose to such a height that not 
only the Queen's party, but the Queen's person, 
was in direst peril. Then was established the value 
of Emma's bad reputation. Her intimacy with 
the Queen was known, and Lady Hamilton went 
backwards and forwards between the Palace and 
the Embassy without exciting attention or suspicion. 
She used her opportunities to collect jewels and trea- 
sure, conveying them first to the Embassy, and then, 
for safety, to the British ships. Everything had 
to be thought of, and all contingencies provided 
against. The courtesan turned conspirator proved 
her quality and rose to the occasion. Nelson would 
convey the King and Queen, their family and suite, 
to Palermo, and of course Emma would accompany 
them. Clothing and provisions must go, and as 
much else as could be carried. The Queen was 
obstinate in her refusal to depart, leaving the 
treasures of the palace as booty for the advanc- 
ing French. Then, too, there were the King's 



296 Nelson's Legacy 

vacillations to be reckoned with and combated. 
He clung to the hope that even so late the 
disturbances in Naples might die down, and 
Providence intervene on his behalf. 

The delay was unfortunate, for it brought them 
into bad weather. Had Nelson been permitted 
to weigh anchor earlier, the fatal incident we must 
soon chronicle might perhaps have been averted. 
The wind that was then blowing fresh from the 
north-east would have carried the refugees safe 
to Palermo before the storm broke over the fleet. 
But the King was irresolute to the last, even when 
his consort's scruples had all been overcome. 
Emma was actively engaged in conveying and 
superintending the secret removal of money and 
goods to the extraordinary value of two and a half 
million pounds sterling. Meantime the excitement 
of the mob was waxing higher and more fierce, 
and their Majesties were compelled to make fre- 
quent appearances on the balcony of the royal 
palace in order to satisfy the people that they had 
not deserted their capital. 

On December 18th, however, General Mack 
writing that he had no prospect of stopping the 
progress of the French, and adding his entreaties 
to the others that the Royal Family should retire 
from Naples as expeditiously as possible, the King 
at length signified his approval of the arrange- 



Nelson's Legacy 297 

ments concerted by Nelson and Lady Hamilton 
for the embarkation. A secret passage led from 
the royal apartments to the little quay, and here 
it was agreed that the refugees should be met by 
the Admiral, and conveyed to the Vanguard, 
which lay at about the distance of an hour's hard 
rowing. 

The Kilien Effendi, who had been sent by 
the Grand Seignior to Naples to present Nelson 
with the Plume of Triumph, was holding a re- 
ception that night, and, in order to raise no sus- 
picion, the British Ambassador attended the enter- 
tainment. Emma, too, was there, the loveliest 
and most animated figure of them all. The great 
enterprise before her only served to make her 
spirits more ebullient. She and Nelson exchanged 
glances and were conscious of the double secret 
they were sharing. They had grown quickly into 
intimacy and every hour made it clearer to them 
that there was nothing they could not adventure 
together. To carry off the King and Queen, their 
entire family and the treasures of the Crown was 
only the beginning. All was arranged, and well 
arranged. The embassy carriage was standing 
before Kilien Effendi' s front door when the British 
Ambassador walked away unobserved from the 
back. Emma had stepped hurriedly out of her 
fine clothes and into those more suitable to the 



298 Nelson's Legacy 

voyage before her. When the time appointed for 
the rendezvous arrived, Emma met the Queen at 
the secret entrance to the palace, supporting her 
through the darkness of the tortuous passage to 
the hardly hghter quay. She then committed 
her to Nelson's safe custody, and, rejoining her 
husband and mother in Sir William Hamilton's 
private boat, followed the royal party to the 
ship. 

The night was horribly dark, with a strong wind 
blowing off the shore, raising a heavy ocean swell 
that made the voyage extremely hazardous. The 
Vanguard stood out to sea under a sky whose 
threatening aspect was borne out the next morn- 
ing by a storm more terrible than any Nelson had 
experienced in the whole of the thirty years he had 
known the sea. All the sails were blown to tatters, 
and sailors stood by with axes ready to cut away 
the masts. The terrific violence of the tempest 
shattered the nerves of many of the refugees, already 
strung to the point of snapping by the excitements 
and anxieties of the past weeks. They crowded 
into the captain's cabin as if Neptune would 
not dare to strike them there, and their prayers 
and cries of fear rose louder with each deeper roll 
of the labouring vessel. It was now that Emma for 
the first time really merits our reader's admiration 
and showed the qualities that not only palliate her 



Nelson's Legacy 299 

shortcomings, but might well prove our excuse for 
having selected such a heroine for our memoir. 
She forgot all her consequence remembering only 
that she was a better sailor than the rest. She 
gave up her cabin to the Queen and devoted her- 
self to the care of the royal children, who were in 
the last extremity of fear, and suffering terribly 
from sea-sickness. All the mother-love she had 
in her, cheated by circumstance, rose in full 
flood, and spent itself upon these frightened little 
ones. 

To one of them, Prince Albert, now but six 
years old, she was especially attached, and it was 
he whom death reft from her protecting arms. 
For, after being tortured by the most violent sea- 
sickness, making a brave effort to take food, his 
stomach rebelled against his will, and, falling into 
a succession of convulsive fits, he died in the late 
afternoon of Christmas Day, adding by his un- 
timely death the last drop to the brimming cup 
of the Queen's distress. Nelson was present at 
the prince's demise, and, watching Lady Hamilton 
as she held the dying child — for all the women in 
attendance on the Queen were incapable of assist- 
ance, and there was not another soul to be of 
service — his admiration of her womanliness and 
sweetness overcharged his heart. His own long- 
ing for fatherhood swelled to the point of pain, 



300 Nelson's Legacy 

and was distilled in the tears he hurried away 
to hide. When he left the pitiful scene, the image 
of Emma with the child in her arms was the one 
he carried with him. He would it were a child of 
his she cradled there ; the wish haunted him for 
many days. 

It was not until two of the clock the morning 
following the death of the prince that the Vanguard 
was enabled to anchor in the harbour of Palermo. 
For close upon twelve hours, ever since three in 
the afternoon of Christmas Day, she had been 
detained outside, with the Royal Standard flying 
in full view of the capital. For once the Queen's 
spirit was not equal to the burden imposed upon 
it. She left Naples still full of Bourbon pride, 
although bowing to the force of circumstances. 
She reached Palermo a despoiled mother, a woman 
with an unbearable pain in her heart, craving only 
solitude and obscurity in which to hide her grief 
from the world. But queens may not weep for 
their children like common folk. Sicily was wait- 
ing to acclaim Ferdinand and his consort with 
passionate shouts of loyalty and unalterable devo- 
tion. She could not, however, bear to go on shore 
in a public manner. At five o'clock in the morn- 
ing Nelson himself escorted her thither with the 
royal princesses, returning to the Vanguard after- 
wards to attend the disembarkation of the King, 



Nelson's Legacy 301 

for the satisfaction of the shouting SiciHans, in 
all the ceremony of State. 

In the swing of the pendulum are pictured all 
the natural operations. Night follows day, ebb, 
flow, reaction succeeds to action. Emma had had 
her hour, had worked like a man, wept like a 
woman, won Nelson's heart truly and completely 
as she never could have won it through all the 
splendid gift to him of her beauty, or the love 
she laid so lavishly at his feet. It was the Emma 
of the Vanguard to whom he made complete sur- 
render ; she who met stress and storm with smile 
and succour, who had been lovely in helpfulness, 
undaunted in danger. She had met his conception 
of all womanhood ; his spirit leaped to hers, and 
called her mate. This was no creature for dalliance, 
she was wife and mother, palpitating and alive to 
all demands. ' Incomparable,' she had been called, 
' Peerless ' and ' Divine.' But Nelson saw her 
human, and the beauty of her soul held him more 
securely than would ever the beauty of her body. 
To him her great heart was visible in those twelve 
awful days. Whomever else it had held, it held 
Nelson now, and as far as he was concerned it 
was for all time. For twelve days and twelve 
nights she had toiled incessantly, had faced every 
danger fearlessly, and hardships without a murmur. 
After the landing at Palermo the Queen fell ill. 



302 Nelson's Legacy 

At the same time Sir William Hamilton developed 
a bilious fever. Both of them leaned on Emma's 
vitality and wearied for her company. Nelson 
was lost in admiration of the strength that held 
through such fatigues and the spirit that survived 
them. His admiration and tenderness were the 
food on which Emma flourished, and the knowledge 
that she was a heroine. She and Nelson were 
thrown daily and hourly together, for Sir William 
kept his room, complaining of this and the other, 
querulous, and beginning to show the weakness of 
his years. He was for ever urging Emma to look 
after Nelson, to devote herself to his entertain- 
ment ; he had in his illness a weak and unreason- 
able fear lest Nelson and his ships should depart, 
leaving them stranded. 

Nelson made his quarters in their house, and 
there, among an alien populace, alone save for 
the invalid husband, in the lax hours that follow 
great exertion, we see him taking for his own that 
which had heretofore been only borrowed. Sir 
William was nearing three score years and ten, 
Emma was less than half his age, and in the full 
perfection of her beauty. The ambassador's powers 
were failing, but he had ever been a man of experi- 
ence with woman ; he knew now that if he were 
to hold the choicest of his collection, it must be 
by an appeal to her compassion, or perhaps to 



Nelson's Legacy 303 

her self-interest, not by a claim which he was in- 
capable of enforcing and to which she had lately 
been indifferent. 

' As I wax old,' he said, ' it has been hard upon 
me having had both bilious and rheumatic com- 
plaints.' This is not to excuse his conduct, but 
only to explain it. He wanted Nelson's friend- 
ship and the enjoyment of his society ; he had to 
keep Emma by his side, even if only as a nurse. 
There was a decent veil thrown over the position. 
The word friendship served well for what we must 
henceforward call the * triple alliance.' Nelson 
would have shared Emma with no one after 
that voyage in the Vanguard : Quod habeo teneo 
was his motto. But what Sir William Hamilton 
wanted from the woman to whom he had given 
his name, and some estate, years of kindness and 
protection, was what no man could grudge him. 
Here in this veracious , history shall be no attempt 
at judgment on the case of Horatio Nelson and 
Emma Hamilton, or Sir William Hamilton's part 
in it, here is only to be found a plain statement 
of the facts. Let a verdict be arrived at by a 
jury of their peers — if such exist. 

What is to be chronicled is how, notwithstand- 
ing Emma, Nelson soon found himself fretting at 
his inactivity in Palermo. The news was all of 
the French irruption in Naples, and of the growth 



304 Nelson's Legacy 

of Jacobinism. He itched to mow it all down with 
the sword, and as for the men who sowed it, to 
scare them with the thunder of his guns beyond 
the farthest barriers of the Alps. He ached to deal 
another hammer blow at the French, for whom his 
hatred was always growing. Aboukir Bay had 
been good, but it seemed a long time ago. He 
must soon find vent for his inexhaustible energy ; 
waiting was the hardest form of service. He was 
shut up in Palermo, whilst a hundred things might 
be happening, things of vital consequence. Duty 
tied him here in Sicily to cover the blockade of 
Naples, and preserve Sicily in case of an attack. 
If only he could see the King safe again on his 
throne in Naples with every rascally Jacobin hanged 
as high as Haman, with what joy would he leave 
the Mediterranean for good and all ! But would 
he ? Was it really only duty tied him there ? A 
sigh that was almost a groan escaped him, audible 
in the stillness of the night. 

' What is it. Nelson ? ' 

The dear voice reached him, deep, and soft, 
and musical, soothing his fretted nerves, and bring- 
ing a sense of exquisite peace. He had not ex- 
pected her to-night, for it was very late ; but it 
seemed right that she should come to him just 
then, and he turned his tired, grave face to 
her, not smiling, but welcoming her by the 




LADY HAMILTON; THE NUN 

FROM THE rAINTTING BY ROMNEY, IN THE POSSESSION 

OF MONSIF.UR M. SEDELMEYER 



Nelson's Legacy 305 

very quietness with which he accepted her pre- 
sence. 

' Sir WiUiam has been worse than ever to-night,' 
she said, coming in and joining him by the window, 
' fevered and restless, in some pain. I don't think 
he has had one day of real health since we came to 
this miserable house. He has only just fallen 
asleep.' 

' Cannot you do the same ? ' he asked. 

' I ? No, I'm too tired to sleep.' There were 
tears in her voice. 

' My poor Emma,' he said, and drew her into 
the shelter of his arms, ' would that I could take 
all your burdens from you.' 

' I heard you sigh when I was at the door ; 
Nelson has his troubles too.' 

' Not when Emma is in his armg)' he whispered. 
She had the power to make him forget all beside 
herself. 

* 4: * « H: He 

' It grows late, and you are ever more fatigued,' 
he said presently. ' I am but selfish in my desire 
to keep you with me.' 

She shook her head and the movement freed 
her loosened hair which shone like a red gold 
sun-mist and made an aureole for her beautiful 
face. 

' I want you most when I am most tired,' she 



3o6 Nelson's Legacy 

told him. ' No one but you has ever rested me. 
It has always seemed I must give and give, and 
be what they want, but you think of me.' She 
found it difficult to explain herself. 

' What do I do for you ? ' he asked tenderly. 
' Whatever it is, I would that I could do 
more.' 

' You make me know you care for me as if 
. . . as if we was real husband and real wife.' 
He drew her closer to him, and she went on. 
' Sir William has been good to me, and wanted me 
to dress handsome and look well. Other men 
have told me I'm beautiful, but you. Nelson, you 
tell me something different. I feel it, and it 
makes me so happy, so proud. I have never had 
a lover but you. . . .' 

Emma meant the phrase metaphorically, Nelson 
in his simplicity accepted it as fact. Ever his love 
for her grew, and it is no doubt she was a great 
mitigation to the tedium of the days at Palermo. 
But Nelson was essentially a man of action, and 
although his heart was anchored, his mind was 
restless. 

History was made quickly in these closing years 
of the eighteenth century. In Naples it was being 
written at double speed. Deserted by their King 
and army, the lazzaroni had been left to defend 
their homes and institutions against the French 



Nelson*s Legacy 307 

invasion. They fought irregularly, but with a 
desperate courage ; they were eventually borne 
down by the weight of the French arms, rein- 
forced by the Revolutionists among their own 
fellow - citizens. A Republic was declared, the 
French occupied the fortress of St. Elmo, the 
Neapolitan Revolutionists garrisoned the castle of 
Uovo and Nuovo; the capital lay at the mercy 
of the enemy. In addition to this a powerful 
French fleet was cruising somewhere in the Medi- 
terranean. It was knowledge of this last fact that 
held Nelson at Palermo. 

King Ferdinand, before he fled from Naples, 
had given his royal commission to Cardinal Ruffo 
to rouse the Calabrese, and His Eminence was so 
successful in stimulating the martial spirit of this 
proud and patriotic people that in a short time 
the invaders and the Revolutionists were in a 
mood to discuss terms. News of this now reached 
Palermo and some uneasiness was felt by the 
King as to the lengths to which the Cardinal's 
unfettered action might carry him. Nelson, in 
particular, was ill content to leave His Eminence 
in the full power of a plenipotentiary ; the ardent 
desire of his whole career had been to crush and 
stamp out this damnable Jacobinism, not to make 
terms with it. 

Even Emma's arms could not hold Nelson 



3o8 Nelson's Legacy 

when rumour after rumour reached Palermo of 
what was occurring. 

' Don't leave me, Nelson,' Emma pleaded. 

' Don't hold me, Emma. I am ill to hold when 
duty calls. Help me rather.' 

' How can I help you ? ' 

' Seek the King. I have wearied him and now 
he will no longer grant me audience, but pleads 
illness, and vexes me with delays. I ought to be 
in Naples ; it is working in me His Eminence has 
been won over.' 

' But how am I to live here without you ? 
And, Nelson . . .' Then her colour heightened, 
and she whispered in his ear what she thought, 
or feared. He flushed too. The breach of his 
marriage vows had been followed by no perceptible 
moral deterioration. Since he had felt it was not 
the flesh, but the spirit, speaking when it told him 
this was his true mate and wife that should have 
been, and might be yet, he had been quite deliber- 
ate in his assumption that their union, although 
irregular, was for all time. What she whispered 
to him as a possibility was something for which he 
had ever longed. His wife had borne him no child ; 
it was Emma who should give him that pride and 
fulfilment of manhood. He told her now that her 
news filled him with joy, if with some apprehension 
for her. 



Nelson's Legacy 309 

' And now you won't leave me, you won't 
want to go.' 

But he could not be made to see that the cir- 
cumstance should alter his plans ; and all Emma's 
pleadings left his view unaltered. All that it 
effected was to hasten his movements. For sud- 
denly Emma said : 

' Why not carry me and Sir William with you 
to Naples ? You will want an intermediary between 
you and the Cardinal. . . .' 

It was an inspiration. Nelson was transported 
at the idea that she would accompany him, and 
nothing remained but to secure the King's permis- 
sion. With Emma at work, this was only an affair 
of hours. 

Before it seemed possible they were on board 
the Foudroyant, sail set, flags flying, and the popu- 
lace cheering them to the water's edge. 

' My love, it was good of you to persuade 
Nelson to let us embark with him. I am sure 
I shall recover quickly once I am out of this un- 
congenial town,' Sir William said, from the couch 
that had been rigged out for him on deck. 

' Oh, Emma ! how quickly you got the King's 
permission ; what a diplomatist you would have 
made ! And now we have the voyage before 
us, and the wind in our favour. Dear one, 
but we will make the journey memorable,' was 



310 Nelson's Legacy 

Nelson's comment ere he hurried to the quarter- 
deck. 

Arrived at Naples, Nelson for once found 
rumour had not exaggerated. The Cardinal had 
agreed to a truce ; he had promised security of 
their persons and property to the Revolutionists, 
and to the French garrison permission to march 
out of the fortress with all the honours of war, 
prior to being conveyed to their own land at King 
Ferdinand's expense ! And to this astonishingly 
liberal proposal the representatives of the other 
Powers had already affixed their signatures. 

Nelson made short work of the convention. 
He annulled the amnesty, declaring that whoever 
had served the Republic was a traitor, and that 
kings do not capitulate with rebels. Ruffo's pro- 
testations were overruled, and himself dismissed 
into obscurity. The army was quickly reorganised, 
St. Elmo retaken, and the rebels forced to submit 
to what clemency the King might show. Sharp 
diseases call for sharp remedies, and the knife was 
not spared now in cutting this gangrene of revolu- 
tion out of the heart of the country. Disloyalty 
had spread like the plague, the most signal instance 
of all being supplied by that same Caracciolo, who 
so few months before had brought the King in 
his barge to meet Nelson when returning victorious 
from the Nile. 



Nelson's Legacy 311 

It was only a few weeks ago that Caracciolo 
had left the King at Palermo, to all appearance a 
faithful loyalist. Yet he had no sooner reached 
Naples than he joined the rebels, and even com- 
manded their fleet. In Nelson's eye the case was 
simple as it was black. He held his King's com- 
mission, and he had fired on his King's flag. That 
spelt death. Caracciolo must hang. Emma pleaded 
for him, but it was of no avail. About five of the 
clock on a glorious June afternoon all Naples 
turned its eyes to the yardarm of the Minerva, the 
frigate that had been the target for Caracciolo's 
rebel guns. There swayed and swung the lifeless 
form of Prince Francesco Caracciolo, Admiral of 
the Neapolitan Navy, a warning to all traitors. 
At sunset the rope was cut, and the heavy-shotted 
corpse dropped into the sea. 

Emma played no part in the reprisals ; she 
was wholly occupied in making herself in- 
dispensable to her lover, whilst not neglecting 
her duties to Sir William, whose rapid recovery 
enabled him to take up again the reins of his 
authority. Acting for one and both of them, and 
with the full concurrence of the Ministers, it was 
Lady Hamilton who received the Royalists on 
behalf of the Queen, supplied the lazzaroni with 
new arms, and so conducted matters with the feudal 
lords and others whose affection Her Majesty had 



312 Nelson's Legacy 

alienated, that her praises were heard on all sides. 
Nelson was transported by her tact and intelli- 
gence. It seemed to him that she bore prosperity 
and adversity equally well. For instance, a bomb 
burst in Sir William's new apartment, an echo 
of the storming of St. Elmo ; the damage done was 
estimated at thirty thousand pounds. Emma said 
stoutly it was well lost if it ended the Revolution. 
Nelson heard her ; Sir William fortunately was 
out of earshot. 

' You care nothing for money,' he exclaimed. 
' Peerless and incomparable woman. It is enough 
for you that the revolution is ended, that the Queen 
will be restored. A restoration to which you have 
contributed so much.' 

' Not so much as my Nelson.' 

' Nelson and Emma are one,' he answered 
soberly. ' I have done no more for Italy than 
you.' 

And she came to believe him, which is perhaps 
the strangest thing in her strange history. The 
English Ministry later on had much ado in dis- 
illusioning her, and Grenville and others have been 
blamed for their action. But after the publication 
of these memoirs the whole matter will be better 
understood. 



CHAPTER XV 

The Hamiltons, with Nelson in their train, make a triumphant 
progress through the capitals of Europe, but on arriving in 
England are cold-shouldered by the Court. Lady Nelson 
becomes a factor in the situation and further estranges her 
husband by her conduct to Emma. The pressing attentions 
of the Prince of Wales excite the jealousy of the Admiral, 
but the birth of Horatia is a signal for the renewal of his 
ardour. The purchase of a country house is decided upon, 
and a selection made of Merton in Surrey. 

WITH the restoration of King Ferdinand to his 
NeapoUtan throne, the repression of the forces 
of Jacobinism in the southern regions of the Italian 
peninsula, and the raising of the blockade of Malta, 
Nelson's work in Italy was practically accomplished. 
As ever in times of inactivity his physical health 
suffered and in the phantasmagoria of fevered 
nights he saw life out of proportion ; facts and 
fancies became interwoven and indistinguishable. 
Now he was possessed of the idea that he was held 
in disfavour by the Admiralty, and this in despite 
of the magnitude of his services to England and 
Europe. Emma tried in vain to rouse him from 
the depression into which he fell ; indeed she 
became part of it. 

' They have done nothing for you,' he com- 

313 



3^4 Nelson's Legacy 

plained, ' though you were the cause of all my 
victories. They send no answer to my letters.' 

' They will be glad enough of your services when 
Napoleon is again active. Don't fret, Nelson ; they 
know there is no one but you if ever they should 
need a commander. And meanwhile we are to- 
gether, and as happy as the day is long.' 

' You are a sweet comforter, but it is hard to 
be neglected and passed over. . . .' 

Nelson was neither neglected nor passed over, 
but he was fain to believe himself ill-used, and, 
in a condition that in one less great would be 
called bad temper, he asked for and obtained leave. 
Thus it came about that he struck flag and set 
out for home at the same time as Sir William 
Hamilton put into execution what had long been 
in his mind, and sent in his resignation. 

Emma assuredly believed that in leaving Italy 
for England she was but altering the scene of her 
triumphs, and that St. James's Palace would be 
as accessible to her as had been the Court of 
Ferdinand and Maria Carolina. She had some 
excuse for her blindness or folly, for she had really 
forgotten or found excuses for all that had hap- 
pened to her before she became the wife of Sir 
William Hamilton. And if such a past as hers 
could be effaced, the present, that gave a husband's 
countenance to her intimacy with Nelson, might 



Nelson's Legacy 3^5 

easily appear to her as nothing to debar her from 
enjoying the consideration and the company of 
virtuous women. 

She had quite come to beheve that Nelson owed 
his victories, and Italy its freedom, to her exer- 
tions, and confidently expected the plaudits of the 
world. It was an elate and confident Emma who 
bade farewell to Italy, and, with her complaisant 
husband, accompanied Nelson on his almost royal 
progress across Europe. Maria Carolina went with 
them as far as Vienna, travelling by Leghorn, 
Florence, and Trieste, each of which towns sought 
to eclipse the other in the magnificence and honour 
of its welcome to the distinguished party. In 
Vienna the noble houses of Esterhazy and Bathyani 
spread their most splendid hospitality before the 
Queen and her favourite, and fireworks, balls, 
hunting parties, concerts were the order of the 
day. Prague, Dresden, and Hamburg were only 
more places where Emma's pride and vanity were 
fed. It is surely no matter for wonder that a 
woman before whom a whole continent bowed 
down should have looked for a cordial reception 
in her native land. 

That which she had omitted to reckon with 
was the virtue which is inherent in the English 
character. Although in every age and under 
every king a class may emerge, profligate, 



3i6 Nelson's Legacy 

extravagant, heedless of the pubhc weal so long 
as it may indulge every selfish wish and satisfy 
every carnal appetite, yet the people as a whole 
do inherently believe that their national greatness 
is built upon the purity of home life. 

The English Court epitomised the English 
people. A narrow and pietistic dogmatism charac- 
terised the Queen and was incidentally responsible 
for the breaking away of the young princes. 
George III. in his intervals of comparative 
sanity subscribed to the doctrines held by his 
consort. 

The trouble began with the arrival of Sir William 
Hamilton and his party at Yarmouth. Nelson 
was greeted, as it seemed, by all England ex- 
cepting only his wife. Her son Josiah had sup- 
plied her with sufficient information to poison 
her mind, and the accounts of the receptions at 
the various foreign Courts inflamed it further. She 
had had no part in Nelson's triumphs, no share 
in his glory ; that lot being reserved for Lady 
Hamilton. Even if her affection for her second 
husband had been greater than there is reason 
to suppose was the case, her forbearance would 
have been strained beyond the point of endurance 
at the publicity of the affront now put upon her 
by his conduct towards another woman. For his 
infatuation was patent to all the world. It was 



Nelson's Legacy 317 

Lady Hamilton who shared his triumphant entry 
into England as she had been one with his 
triumphant progress through Europe. The car- 
riage that drove him from the quay held also Lady 
Hamilton, Sir William following almost unobserved. 
The people acclaimed and shouted ; to them Nelson 
was ' the Hero of the Nile,' the one figure to scare 
away the bogey Buonaparte. But to his wife, 
remaining in London, silent and solitary, he was 
a husband who insulted her dignity, no more and 
no less. 

Satirists up in London were quickly busy with 
pen and graving tool. The scandal was well dis- 
seminated before the Hamiltons arrived in the 
house in Piccadilly, facing the Green Park, 
which had been prepared in anticipation of their 
coming. 

Because of the lampoons, prints, and all the 
gossip set afloat by Josiah, it seemed an audacity 
truly amazing on Emma's part, and a compliance 
and lack of tact hardly less astonishing on that 
of Sir William, that the Hamiltons not only elected 
to accompany Nelson on his journey from Yar- 
mouth to the capital, but actually persuaded him 
to take up his residence in their house. It was 
as if they had all three blindfolded themselves, 
and now imagined no one else could see. 

They were astonished by the news quickly 



3i8 Nelson's Legacy 

conveyed to them, that whilst the King would 
give Sir William audience, the Queen refused 
to receive Lady Hamilton! Nelson stormed and 
swore the Court should not see him either ; Sir 
William nursed his gout ; Emma sent for Greville. 
' She has heard something against me, some 
rival must have spoken or wrote ill of me. Women 
is all such jealous creatures ! ' was what Emma 
said to Greville. She was quite naive and uncon- 
scious of offence. ' You must get it to the Queen's 
ears that I am all discretion now. I am no longer 
giddy and frivolous like I used to be. I have been 
in high affairs. . . . ' She appealed to Sir William, 
and he confirmed her warmly. He was weary of 
ambition, strife, and politics, vexed that the ques- 
tion of Emma's standing should be questioned, and 
anxious she should be satisfied. It was a long time 
before she was brought to realise the true state of 
affairs and the share Nelson's wife had in bringing 
it about. She had expected to be courted, and 
behold she was practically, if not entirely, ostra- 
cised — a parlous state of affairs for one who, in 
her own opinion, had made Nelson, released Italy, 
and proved the closest friend and confidante of 
the proudest of the Bourbons. We could regard 
her amazement and disappointment with less 
wonder if it were not that she was already six 
months gone with child. 



Nelson*s Legacy 3^9 

If this was not known, it was at least more 
than suspected, and the effrontery of the whole 
affair appeared always more incredible. If Emma 
had actually been as much the nation's benefactress 
as she imagined herself, her public merit would 
not have weighed in English eyes against her 
private indiscretions. In such a matter England 
differed completely from Italy. 

The private arrangement, if one existed, was 
the affair of nobody but the three persons con- 
cerned. Sir William Hamilton was not the first, 
and would not be the last elderly husband of a 
beautiful young woman to accept a pair of horns. 
That he should wear them openly and as an orna- 
ment was the offence, and one that rankled. And 
even if there had been no Nelson, and no Lady 
Nelson, with her cold aloofness and bitter tongue, 
it is doubtful whether the royal attitude towards 
Sir William Hamilton's wife would have been very 
different. In truth, Emma was too exotic, too 
ebullient, too self-conscious and flamboyant to be 
to the taste of Queen Caroline and the ladies of 
the Court. The gayer her manner, the brighter 
her smiles, the sweeter her singing, and the more 
captivating her Attitudes, the less was the likeli- 
hood she should be accepted as one of themselves 
by those who could not compete, and would not 
admire. 



320 Nelson's Legacy 

The Queen definitely ignored Emma's existence, 
and society followed the example she set them. In- 
vitations to the big house in Piccadilly were either 
left unanswered or met by curt refusal. Emma 
was first incredulous, then indignant, but finally, 
when the Duke of Queensberry and others of his 
kidney came around her, as they began to do 
very soon, she became indifferent. Her sensibilities 
were so blunted that she could not see that the world 
had a grievance against her. And that grievance 
became accentuated by her blindness to it. Never, 
perhaps, did Emma display so clearly the wanton- 
ness from which her character had not altered as in 
the first few weeks of her return to England. Nelson 
and Sir William Hamilton were perhaps as much 
responsible as she for the state of her mind. The 
sense of guilt, which a man naturally so religious 
as Nelson should have felt in his adulterous con- 
nection, was all obliterated by Lady Nelson's 
attitude towards his ' sweet Emma.' Coldly con- 
temptuous she was, and self-righteous, lacking in 
sympathy and understanding of the indignant and 
warm-hearted sailor. She insulted and ignored 
Lady Hamilton, and wanted to make Nelson's 
breaking off his intimacy with her a prelude to 
their own better agreement. She stood out for 
her rights and privileges, confronting him with 
lawyers, whom he hated next to Popery and the 



Nelson's Legacy 321 

French, when he would have approached her with 
kindness. She really drove him back to Emma, 
who had experience in men's ways, and knew how 
to soothe him. Then there was the sense of joy 
in his approaching fatherhood and his gratitude to 
her who promised it him. Everything combined 
in Emma's favour to excite Nelson's chivalry and 
deepen his attachment. He was a religious man, 
and because his wife was Josiah Nisbet's mother, 
and to him inflexible and rigid, whilst Emma was 
about to bear him a child and was ever warm and 
loving, yet never forgetting his greatness and 
superiority, he was confirmed in his decision 
that it was indeed she who was his ' wife before 
God.' 

We must in his extenuation remember that he 
was unaware of all her history, so familiar now to 
us. He had heard, for thus far Emma's ingenuous 
confession admitted, that in an unsheltered youth 
her innocence had been betrayed. But that was all. 
Of Sir William, all that can be said is that he was 
in ill-health and valued Emma's nursing, and having 
set so high a value on Nelson, he had no stomach 
to refuse him that which he no longer required for 
his own gratification. Sir William Hamilton was 
of so autocratic a temper he thought he could 
carry any situation. Had not Greville been in the 
way, there is little doubt he would have fathered 



322 Nelson's Legacy 

the coming child. As it was, some httle circum- 
spection was necessary ; the more so, perhaps, as 
the matter of his pension was not yet settled, and 
difficulties about it were already being raised. 
Secrecy as to Emma's condition was further ren- 
dered advisable by the attitude of the Prince of 
Wales. It is well known that not only did the 
Prince fail in subscribing to his parents' doctrines, 
but was on ill terms with them on account of the 
licentiousness of his own conduct and the de- 
bauchery of his days. To him, nevertheless, 
Sir William began to look to repair his broken 
fortunes. The King's health was already a matter 
of concern to his loyal subjects, but there were 
those of the Prince's set who built hopes upon it. 
When no influence that he could himself bring to 
bear moved the inflexibility of the Court towards 
Emma, it was not perhaps unnatural that Sir 
William's thoughts should turn to the heir to the 
throne. Already the Prince had honoured Emma 
with his regard, had been particular in his atten- 
tions when he met her at the Duke of Queens- 
berry's house, where he conversed with her for a 
long time. But that Nelson was there also, 
always inclined to jealousy, fiery, and capable of 
making a scene, Emma's encouragement might 
have been more marked. She was aware of Sir 
William's mind, and would not have thwarted him 



Nelson's Legacy 323 

in an enterprise so suitable to her talents. At 
His Grace's ball the Prince handed her through a 
quadrille ; when he was sober and willed it, his 
manners had an elegance that caused him some- 
times to be named as ' the First Gentleman in 
Europe.' Emma has put it on record that he had 
a pretty leg and looked at her ' approvingly.' 
That she looked back again may be gathered from 
Nelson's letters to her, letters written after he 
was recalled to his ship. 

The summons came all too soon. Nelson left 
his Emma in the midst of temptations, from which 
it seemed that only her condition protected her. 
And about that condition it was finally agreed the 
utmost discretion must be observed. Greville was 
at the back of all the arrangements ; to him alone 
Emma was completely open. Their interests were 
again opposed, and again it was Mr. Greville who 
carried the day. The charge of pregnancy must 
be denied at all hazards, Emma must be seen 
everywhere, the Prince's attentions must be en- 
couraged. These were Mr. Greville's instructions ; 
all his prospects would be jeopardised if a child 
were openly born in wedlock. This was not the 
argument he used to Emma. He urged that the 
most distinguished career can be injured and 
checked in England by open scandal, and that 
whatever Nelson had done in the past he was 



324 Nelson's Legacy 

capable of greater things in the future if he were 
not hampered. Generous-hearted Emma was 
moved by this argument. He went on to point 
out Lady Nelson might elect to sue for a divorce, 
although, on the other hand, her temper was such 
that it might incline her to punish her husband's 
infidelity by refraining from taking action, and 
so, even in the event of Sir William's death, pre- 
vent him from making her whom he called his 
' wife before God ' also his wife before man. 

Sir William was brought to declare publicly that 
the friendship between his wife and Nelson was 
platonic. An acknowledged accoucheynent would 
confute him, or force him to a claim his state of 
health made untenable. Mr. Greville had been 
shocked by the want of reticence and tact already 
exhibited. Now, in view of the Prince of Wales's 
attentions, and all to which it might lead, he 
exerted himself to the adjustment of the position. 
Emma was ever clay in Mr. Greville' s hands and 
plastic to his moulding. She was proud when 
Greville said the Prince was attracted by her, and 
listened with avidity when he told her that she 
had been the toast of the evening at Mr. Fox's. 
Her vanity was all agog, and Mr. Greville's know- 
ledge how she was appreciated was the healing 
salve for the wound which Queen Caroline inflicted. 

Nelson was recalled to his ship, and Emma 



Nelson's Legacy 325 

took leave of him with many tears and protesta- 
tions. 

* How can I leave you to bear your pains and 
apprehensions alone ? ' 

' How can I part with my hero ? ' was the 
burden of their talk in that interview so over- 
laden with emotion. 

' You will never let me be without news ? ' 
he begged. 

' I will write by every opportunity,' she as- 
severated. ' What pleasure shall I have in life 
save writing to him who makes my entire happi- 
ness ? ' 

' And keep all men at a distance until your 
Nelson returns to guard you.' 

' You do not doubt me, Nelson, you do not 
doubt your Emma ? ' she asked tenderly. 

' 'Tis your innocence I fear, and the damnable 
rascality of the Prince and his crew,' he answered 
gloomily. 

Emma promised all and more than Nelson asked. 
Since it made him uneasy, she said she would not 
speak to the Prince, nor accept the banquet he 
had already offered her ; she would not let him 
come at all to Piccadilly. 

But for themselves they must keep all they 
were to each other a secret, an inviolable, absolute 
secret, else Lady Nelson would make trouble, and 



326 Nelson'vS Legacy 

his enemies, always on the alert, would have a 
lever to move the Admiralty against him. Emma's 
tongue spoke Greville's words. She proceeded to 
tell Nelson she had thought out a plan for their 
correspondence, in case it should be intercepted 
or come into unfriendly hands. The plan was 
Greville's invention, but it became Emma's in 
the telling. Nelson was slow to subscribe to it, 
but could refuse his Emma nothing in taking leave 
of her at such a time. 

Greville's plan was that they were to pretend 
the existence of a Mr. and Mrs. Thomson, of whom 
the former was supposed to be serving under 
Nelson and on his ship, while the latter, hourly 
expecting her confinement, was committed to the 
kind-hearted care of Lady Hamilton. Under pre- 
text of committing news of the mother and child 
to the anxious naval officer, Lady Hamilton was 
to address all letters bearing upon this interesting 
subject to Mr. Thomson ' by favour of the Admiral,' 
who in return would address his replies to Mrs. 
Thomson ' under the care of Lady Hamilton.' 
These letters, should they happen to be perused 
by any other party, would thus be capable of an 
explanation which would make up in plausibility 
what it lacked in truth, and meanwhile the guilty 
lovers could carry on their habitual correspond- 
ence under their proper names. 



Nelson's Legacy 327 

Nelson agreed with difficulty. He hated sub- 
terfuge, and, had not his hand been forced by- 
cajolery and argument, would have been bold in 
acknowledging the true state of affairs. The price 
of his complaisance was Emma's promise that she 
would not see or speak to the ' first gentleman in 
Europe,' Prince George of Wales. We shall see 
how she kept her promise. 

After Admiral Nelson left London to sail 
once more against the French, Emma retired to 
her room and gave herself up to tears. She was 
disconsolate at the departure of one whose cham- 
pionship was her greatest claim to consideration. 
She was also dismayed at what lay before her, 
although it was so much less strange or new to 
her than Nelson supposed. Nevertheless, that very 
evening, to revive her spirits, she went to the 
Opera to hear Banti. Before many hours had 
elapsed, whilst still her vows to Nelson were hot 
on her lips, sealed there by his kisses, she not only 
gave audience to the Prince but met his atten- 
tions in so engaging a manner, that nothing 
would serve him but that the meeting should be 
quickly repeated. She excused herself easily for 
her misfeasance : 

' Sir William's pension depends on it,' she 
told Mr. Greville ; ' he is himself writing to Nelson 
that we have no choice.' And Sir William actually 



328 Nelson's Legacy 

did write of the ' absolute necessity ' of giving a 
dinner to the Prince of Wales ! It appeared that 
he had expressed a desire to hear Emma sing 
a duet with the famous cantatrice, and afterwards 
witness some of her incomparable Attitudes. Sir 
William was pressing his application for additional 
pension, and he dared not offend the Prince. 

Before the admiral's furious answer arrived, 
events had moved rapidly. The Prince was no 
laggard in love-making, if every other offence could 
be brought to his charge. He was of catholic 
tastes in that regard and there is no doubt Nelson 
had reason for his vehemence. The Prince was 
quite untrammelled by those conscientious scruples 
which distinguished his august parents. He had 
been for some time enamoured of Emma's beauty, 
of which he had acquired several counterfeit pre- 
sentments, notably Mr. Romney's pictures of her 
as ' Joan of Arc ' and ' The Magdalene.' He 
knew more about her history than Nelson him- 
self, and there is little doubt he now proposed to 
enjoy charms which by the proved consent of so 
many polite people were of quite superlative ex- 
cellence. He accordingly honoured Sir William 
by inviting himself to his house. Up to this 
moment Emma had been flattered, and by no 
means unwilling to listen to the Prince's compli- 
ments. Now she found herself embarrassed. 



Nelson's Legacy 329 

Again Greville was consulted ; we see his hand 
in the entertainment that was so quickly arranged. 
Emma must sing, laugh, talk, and lead the Prince 
on. He, Mr. Greville, would charge himself with 
the rest. It was but a matter of postponement, 
of a ' promise to pay,' that could be cancelled or 
contrived against after the matter of the pension 
had been concluded. 

Nelson got wind of the affair, and was wrought 
to the highest pitch of nervous excitement by the 
prospect of his adored one, who was so soon to be 
the mother of his child, being placed in circum- 
stances in which she might be compelled to yield 
to a royal seducer. 

' You are too beautiful not to have enemies,' he wrote 
to Emma, ' and even one visit will stamp you. He is 
without one spark of honour in these matters, and would 
leave you to bewail your folly. But I know you too well 
not to be convinced that you cannot be seduced by any 
Prince in Europe.' 

The conviction did not allay his anxiety when 
he heard that the entertainment could not be 
avoided. 

' I am so agitated that I can write nothing. I knew 
it would be so and you can't help it. Do not sit long at 
table. Good God ! he will be next you, and telling you 
soft things. If he does, tell it out at table, and turn him 
out of the house. Oh God ! that I was dead ! But I 



330 Nelson's Legacy 

do not, my dearest Emma, blame you, nor do I fear 
your constancy. I am gone almost mad, but you can- 
not help it. If I was in town nothing should make me 
dine with you that damned day. I have read your reso- 
lution never to go where the fellow is, but you must have 
him at home. Oh God ! but you cannot, I suppose, 
help it, you cannot turn him out of your own house. If 
you cannot get rid of this, I hope you will tell Sir William 
never to bring the fellow again.' 

Again, and in still greater heat of passion, he 
wrote : 

' I cannot help saying a few words on that fellow's 
dining with you, for you do not believe it to be out of 
love for Sir William. I knew that he would visit you, 
and that you could not help coming downstairs when 
the Prince was there. His words are so charming that, 
I am told, no person can withstand them. If I had been 
worth ten millions I would have betted every farthing 
that you would not have stayed in the house knowing 
that he was there, and if you did, which I would not have 
believed, that you would have sent him a proper message 
by Sir William, and sent him to hell. And knowing your 
determined courage when you had got down, I would 
have laid my head upon the block with the axe uplifted, 
and said " strike " if Emma does not say to Sir William 
before the fellow " my character cannot, shall not 
suffer by permitting him to visit." . . . You cannot 
now help the villain's dining with you. Get rid of it 
as well as you can. Do not let him come down- 
stairs with you, or hand you up. If you do, tell me, 
and then . . .' 



Nelson's Legacy 331 

All this heat and anxiety might have been 
avoided. The Prince of Wales did dine with Sir 
William, but fate intervened to prevent the con- 
tamination Nelson dreaded for his lady. To enter- 
tain royalty necessitates a certain amount of pre- 
paration and delay. It was January before Banti 
could be secured. La Banti was at the banquet, 
and the Prince, but the hostess was on a bed of 
sickness ! Her excuses had to be made ; they were 
accepted with ill-humour, a show of incivility, and 
want of credence. But Mr. Greville was again at 
hand to smooth down matters. He had seen to it 
that all the guests were to the Prince's mind, his 
own boon companions, there were ladies present 
almost as fair as Emma, certainly as frail ; there 
was wine and song, Mr. Fox and Lord Barrymore. 
After the first hour the fun waxed fast and furious 
and the absence of its prime incentive hardly con- 
sidered. 

Meanwhile Emma, in the solitude of her own 
apartments, attended only by her ever faithful 
mother, went through her tribulation with the 
courage we are unable to deny her. Sir William 
sent the report to Nelson at sea. Emma was not 
well, she was troubled with ' convulsive complaints 
in the stomach, and vomitings, which required 
some confinement, and required her to take a little 
tartar emetic' 



332 Nelson's Legacy 

Shortly afterwards he was able to announce 
that she was ' certainly much better, but not quite 
free froin bile.' Those two communications con- 
tain the sum of Sir William's acknowledgment of 
the event that now occurred in his house. But by 
means of the Thomson device Nelson was kept 
better informed. He poured out in return all the 
emotions that rent his bosom, although not failing 
to couch his letters in a form that was consistent 
with the fiction of his anxious subordinate. 

' I delivered poor Mrs. Thomson's note ; her friend is 
truly thankful for her kindness and your goodness. Who 
does not admire your benevolent heart ? Poor man, he 
is very anxious, and begs you will, if she is not able, write 
a line just to comfort him. He appears to feel very much 
her situation. He is so agitated, and will be so for 2 or 
3 days, that he says he cannot write, and that I must 
send his kind love and affectionate regards.' 

' Pray tell Mrs. Thomson,' he wrote again, ' her 
kind friend is very uneasy about her, and prays most 
fervently for her safety — and he says he can only depend 
on your goodness.' 

These letters antedated the birth for which 
they were all waiting. When at last that happy 
news reached him, the enthusiasm of his letter 
was too ardent to appear truly vicarious. 

' I believe dear Mrs. Thomson's friend will go mad 
with joy. He cries, prays, and performs all tricks, yet 



Nelson's Legacy 333 

dares not show all or any of his feelings, but he has only 
me to consult with. He swears he will drink your health 
this day in a bumper, and damn me if I don't join him 
in spite of all the doctors in Europe, for none regard you 
with truer affection than myself. You are a dear good 
creature, and your kindness and attention to poor Mrs. 
T. stamps you higher than ever in my mind. I cannot 
write, I am so agitated by this young man at my elbow. 
I believe he is foolish, he does nothing but rave about 
you and her. I own I participate in his joy and cannot 
write anything.' 

And yet once more he wrote to say how good 
a soul and how full of feeling was that friend of 
dear Mrs. Thomson, how much he wished to see 
her and her little one. That 

' good and dear friend does not think it proper at present 
to write with his own hand, but hopes the day may not be 
far distant when he may be united for ever to the object 
of his wishes, his only, only love. He swears before 
Heaven that he will marry her as soon as possible, which 
he fervently prays may be soon.' 

By many other spontaneous ebullitions of joy 
Nelson's contribution to the correspondence be- 
tween imaginary persons was spoiled of verisimili- 
tude. He certainly did not share Emma's aptitude 
for dissimulation. He sent Emma an order on 
his agents for a hundred pounds to be distributed 
among those who had been useful on the recent 
occasion, and he told Emma how dear she was 



334 Nelson's Legacy 

to him, how she was to kiss and bless for him 
his dear httle girl, which he wished to be called 
Emma, ' out of gratitude to dear, good Lady- 
Hamilton.* 

On the other hand, the resolution with which 
Emma carried through this matter may well have 
astonished even those who have witnessed her 
courage on less notable occasions. To within a 
few days of her confinement, she never omitted 
to write to the father of the expected child, nor 
spared any precaution to prevent a mischance 
that might have acquainted her household with 
the nature of her condition, or even have aroused 
suspicion. _ 

In the last days of January her child was born, 
in a period of storm such as marked more than 
one of its father's great adventures — the voyage 
from Naples to Palermo with the royal fugitives, 
for example, and his first arrival at Yarmouth 
after the victory of the Nile. Once more did 
Emma's magnificent health stand her in good 
stead. Her recovery was extraordinarily rapid, 
so much so indeed, that in less than a week from 
the date of the birth she was able to rise and make 
her appearance in public, thus confirming the story, 
assiduously circulated by Greville, that it was but 
a bilious fever had prevented her meeting the 
Prince. 






'^1 



Nelson's Legacy 335 

Emma's first objective was to get rid of the 
living evidence of her recent illness. Concealing 
the infant in a large muff, and taking with her 
Mr. Oliver, whom she had provided with his pre- 
sent situation as confidential agent to Lord Nelson, 
she drove in her own carriage to a house in Little 
Titchfield Street, where she committed the babe 
to the custody of Mrs. Gilson, with whom she had 
previously concluded arrangements to this end. 
What her feelings were in thus being compelled 
to part with her offspring it is idle to surmise. 
Although this was the third time she had brought 
into the world one of those unhappy innocents 
who, until the coming of the merciful new dispensa- 
tion, were debarred from entering the congregation 
of the Lord, we have nowhere evidence of repent- 
ance, nor even of acknowledgment, other than 
pecuniary, of the awful responsibility she incurred. 

Her next anxiety was to meet the Prince again. 
Sir William had not failed to keep her informed 
of how ill his own affairs progressed. He had 
thought, in the event of his request for an increased 
pension being refused or referred, he would have 
been allowed to retract his resignation and return 
to Naples. But Paget had already been sent out and 
his application was practically ignored. Sir William, 
like Emma, deemed his services had been great, 
and but ill rewarded. He had spent lavishly and 



33^ Nelson's Legacy 

was now in debt. Emma had been extravagant 
also. He was querulous, which is not to be won- 
dered at in his situation. But Emma met him 
with unfailing good-humour and good spirits, and 
bade him be not anxious, for now that her health 
was restored she had little doubt she could work 
upon the Prince of Wales. She was in ignorance 
of the fact that she had missed her opportunity 
for ever. The Prince was engrossed with the young 
widow, Mrs. Fitzherbert, and his desire for the 
wife of the whilom ambassador died a natural death. 
Emma was not one to grieve long over the 
Prince's defection. Nelson still held all of her 
large heart that was not filled by vanity or Greville, 
and Nelson wrote her differently from what she 
anticipated about the child. Emma could abandon 
an infant as lightly as she could discard a lover. But 
to Nelson the event was of overmastering import- 
ance ; and it was fame and honour he would give 
up rather than the little Horatia should want a 
father. He wrote that he was ready to resign his 
command, leave England and his post, and return 
with Emma to Bronte, to the Sicilian estate granted 
him by the grateful Ferdinand. There, with her 
and the child, he could build up a new life, even 
without the divorce for which he now saw his wife 
would never apply. He called Emma his ' own 
dear wife.' 



Nelson's Legacy 337 

' I never did love any one else. I never had a dear 
pledge of love till you gave me one, and you, thank my 
God, never gave one to anybody else.' 

Emma had no mind to leave England at this 
juncture. She pleaded that Sir William Hamilton 
was ' old and feeble,' ' needing her company and 
ministration,' and owned that she ' dreaded the 
outcry ' such a proceeding on Nelson's part would 
provoke. But when, as has been seen, the Prince 
disappointed her, and she became aware that he 
had abandoned the pursuit, it needed all Greville's 
wit to save her from changing her determina- 
tion. 

Nelson offered to abandon everything for her 
sake. She might have said ' yes ' to his request, and 
the course of the world's history been changed. The 
Prince's defection had been followed by a slacken- 
ing of the attentions of the Duke of Queensberry. 
The birth of this third child, and the want of pro- 
fessional tendance vy^ith which the event had been 
met, had destroyed her figure, and the duke was 
ever gourmet rather than gourmand. Everything 
combined to make London insupportable to her. 
She might have left Sir William Hamilton, and 
thus forced a scandal even greater than that she 
had already evoked, had not Greville decreed 
otherwise. At all hazards Charles Greville had to 

prevent her acknowledging that she had given 

w 



33^ Nelson's Legacy 

birth to a child, for that child, of whatever paternity, 
had been born in wedlock, and therefore, in law, to 
Sir William Hamilton. 

Mr. Greville was conscious Emma's character 
had retrograded, although always oblivious of his 
own share in its despoilment. He had no illusion 
about her, he could even see that her beauty was 
becoming somewhat overblown and her com- 
plexion thickened. It was time she settled down, 
not at Bronte with Nelson, in open defiance of 
society, but in the country, somewhere near town, 
where he could keep in touch with her, and charge 
himself with the comparative decorousness of her 
conduct. 

This was Greville's decision ; he wanted to get 
Emma out of London, where already her presence 
had brought him inconvenience, and was likely to 
bring him more. That Nelson should have had 
the same idea at the same time was not wonder- 
ful. War, long protracted, had depreciated the 
value of every form of property. This was a good 
time to buy land. Nelson wrote again that, if 
Emma had no mind to join him at Bronte, what 
did she say to joining him in a home in England ? 
Sir William could live with them, she could man- 
age it in her own way. She was to write him 
openly, fully. He had ' nothing but her welfare 
in his mind.' But when he came back and the 



Nelson's Legacy 339 

war was over, they must ' be all together, you and 
I, and Mrs. Thomson's little one.' 

Greville seized the occasion of the letter and 
turned it to his own advantage. Before Emma 
had time to wonder if she could abandon the 
delights of London and give herself up to country 
pursuits, a pleasant residential estate had been found 
at Merton in Surrey. Negotiations were entered 
into hurriedly and Nelson was soon transported 
by the news that, if he wished it, Merton could be 
his on easy terms. A description followed. Nelson 
wrote that if his Emma was satisfied he was, he 
had no doubt Merton was all she described. She 
was to buy and furnish it for him. It was Sir 
William who wrote in answer to that ; he was 
still the figure-head, although Greville pulled the 
strings : 

* I have lived with our dear Emma several years, I 
know her merit, I have a great opinion of the head and 
heart God Almighty has been pleased to give her, but a 
seaman alone could have given a fine woman full powers 
to choose and fit up a residence for him without seeing it 
for himself. You are in luck, for on my conscience I 
verily believe that a place so suitable to your views could 
not have been found and at so cheap a rate. And if 
you stay away three days longer I do not think you can 
have any wish but you will find it completed here. . . . 
I never saw so many conveniences united in so small a 
compass. You have nothing but to come and enjoy 
immediately.' 



340 Nelson's Legacy 

Once the house had been secured Emma be- 
came enthusiastic at the idea of being its mistress. 
She began to find happiness in seeing herself as 
chatelaine, with Nelson by her side. Sir William 
had ceased to interest and his talks with Greville 
about pictures and virtu frankly bored her. She 
needed a fresh entourage. From London's neglect 
and the Prince's she turned to Nelson's warm and 
passionate love-letters and the future he was always 
picturing when he might spend his life in worship- 
ping her. She wanted to be worshipped. Her 
youth was on the wane, although that she would 
not confess even to herself. Nelson was right ; 
it was a home she needed ; and Merton could be 
made into a very paradise. 

Now she threw herself into the furnishing and 
embellishing of the house and grounds with all 
and more than her old impetuosity, and the greater 
zest because Nelson declared his intention to be- 
queath the estate to her at his death, and mean- 
while to regard her as its sole mistress. Nelson 
was becoming more desirable ; fresh glory was 
already his. Copenhagen had been added to his 
laurels and his fame was ever increasing. He 
wrote he thought he saw the beginning of the end 
of the long war in which he had rendered such 
signal service. He yearned for ' home, Wife, and 
child.' By now he had forgotten he ever had any 



Nelson's Legacy 341 

wife but Emma ! God alone knows for what Emma 
yearned, perhaps she persuaded herself it was 
Nelson. In any case she occupied herself in 
making the new house worthy of him, and of 
them both. 

Nelson, when at lengtn ne was free to take a 
short leave, found her already installed at Merton. 
Of all forms and manners of life, that of the English 
country gentleman is the gentlest and most agree- 
able, and here, at Merton Place, Nelson enjoyed it 
for a brief period. He made friends with his 
neighbours, who, less sophisticated than the people 
in London, accepted the position that the frequent 
presence of Sir William Hamilton at Merton made 
reasonable. He went regularly to church, and 
gave liberally to all the charities of the neighbour- 
hood. He made a pretence of farming, and took 
interest in his dairy. ' Mrs. Thomson's baby,' the 
infant Horatia, was brought there, and on her 
was lavished all the love Nelson could spare from 
Emma. 

The house, the small farmery and projected 
improvements, Emma and Horatia, his wide char- 
ities and quick friendships, filled his days. He 
belonged to his country, but all this belonged to 
him. So he conceived, his blind eye turned 
towards Lady Nelson and her claims, and the 
other bright with short-sighted happiness. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Clouds gather and the sky is overcast. The death of Sir William 
Hamilton is followed by Arnodeo Gibilmanna's successful 
attempts to blackmail his widow. He has obtained posses- 
sion of Lord Bristol's letters, and threatens to show them 
to Nelson. Emma impoverishes herself to meet his de- 
mands, and then enjoys a brief period of respite with Nelson 
at Merton. But the battle of Trafalgar ends her happi- 
ness, and henceforth all is gloom. Gibilmanna returns to 
the attack, and when Emma can no longer satisfy his 
cupidity, sells her correspondence to Lovewell, a publisher 
of the Barbican. Emma cannot face the gossip that ensues, 
and retires to Calais, where her troubles end. 

DEATH has many henchmen but none more 
trusty than Care. Physicians and chirurgeons. 
Health's bodyguard of gentlemen-at-arms, lack art 
and weapons to repel that insidious foe. The whole 
pharmacopoeia contains no antidote for Care's slow 
poison ; the pathology of anxiety is as yet un- 
printed. That man's days are numbered whom 
Care effectively besets. 

Sir William Hamilton was thus attacked. 
Serenity of temper, moderation in his habits, agree- 
able occupation, plenitude of intelligent interests 
had kept him younger than his years, but the end 

was in sight. He was harassed by the constant 

342 



Nelson's Legacy 343 

drain upon his resources, due to his wife's impru- 
dence and his own. He had entertained lavishly, 
beheving that money expended in hospitality to 
high and influential persons would prove to have 
been invested judiciously, and he had also ex- 
pended large sums of money from his private 
purse in forwarding his country's public interests 
in the Mediterranean. Now he saw no hope of 
reimbursement from a ministry who disregarded 
all his claims. The purchase of Merton by Nelson, 
and the removal there of a greater part of his 
household, mitigated his embarrassments for a 
time, but creditors, no less than age, will not tarry 
for ever. At this time, too, he began to discover 
that he had no longer the strength to hold even his 
undignified position in the triple alliance, and had 
sunk below his wife's consideration. He had 
looked to enjoy seclusion and peace at Merton, 
and perhaps economy. But Emma willed other- 
wise. As Greville truly said, she was ' ever the 
same Emma.' No sooner was Nelson at sea than 
her extravagances were renewed. She kept open 
house in Piccadilly and filled Merton with guests, 
employing the intervals in visits to which she 
dragged Sir William with or against his will. The 
waning of her charms, and another cause to be 
explained later, made her restless, and she sought 
admiration where erstwhile she would have dis- 



344 Nelson's Legacy 

dained it. Sir William understood Nelson's temper 
better than she did and trembled lest her escapades 
should come to his ears. Peace was what Sir 
William Hamilton longed for in his old age. But 
where Emma was, there was no peace. Save 
when Nelson was by her side, enveloping her 
with such adoring love and single-hearted belief 
in her virtue that for lack of opportunity she 
deserved it. 

Sir William Hamilton did not waver in his 
chivalrous loyalty to his wife, and there is indis- 
putably something pathetic in the figure he pre- 
sented in his endeavours to persuade Emma from 
the consequences of her new imprudences. Whilst 
Sir William Hamilton lived Nelson knew no 
anxiety about Emma, and by the time he was 
removed from caring for her, Nelson himself was 
within sight of his glorious end. 

Greville viewed with no less alarm than his 
uncle the failure of the Merton plan as a means 
of economy. Greville never forgot that he was 
his uncle's expectant heir, and he contemplated 
the lavish expenditure with a good deal of con- 
cern as being sure to depreciate largely that residuary 
property of which he was the legatee. Remon- 
strance to Emma was useless. She twitted him 
with his parsimony and boasted that Nelson 
grudged her nothing. She said he would return 



Nelson's Legacy 345 

laden with prize-money, and pour it all in her 
lap. Greville's criticisms, his coldness and ill- 
concealed contempt, his polished wit, and calm 
superiority, provoked her ever into fresh excesses. 
It was through him she had lost her self-respect, 
and it was but justice if his fortune should suffer 
from her lack of it. He turned his attention to 
his uncle and presently brought forward proofs 
that it was not only extravagance Emma was 
committing, but that already she was exciting 
comment on her conduct with a Neapolitan 
lawyer, one Arnodeo Gibilmanna, by whom she 
was attended whenever Nelson was absent from 
home and Sir William otherwise engaged. There was 
exaggeration in his allegations, but when did Greville 
wait for truth when subterfuge better answered 
his purpose ? He succeeded in raising altercation 
between Emma and Sir William, and even led the 
septuagenarian to reconsider for a time his whole 
mode of life. His mind was preceding his body 
in the inevitable decay. The letter that he wrote 
to Emma is full of inconsistencies, and plaints 
that led to nowhere, yet exhibiting the result 
of Greville's handiwork. 

' I am arrived at the age when some repose is really 
necessary. I promised myself a quiet home at Merton, 
and although I was sensible, and I said so when I married, 
that I should be superannuated when my wife would be 



34^ Nelson's Legacy 

in her full beauty and vigour of youth, I think you should 
show me some consideration. . . . There is no time for 
nonsense and trifling, I know and admire your talents 
and many qualities, but I am not blind to your defects, 
and confess having many myself; therefore let us bear 
and forbear, for God's sake.' 

He had no longer the power to express him- 
self, but what he was pleading for was that she 
should cease to squander Nelson's fortune and his 
own, that she should not show herself in public 
attended by Signor Arnodeo Gibilmanna, and should 
have some regard for her good name. In any case 
that she should let him have repose. He could 
not rest whilst he felt that Emma was betray- 
ing Nelson and all their lives hanging over a 
volcano. Emma could only have deceived Nelson 
once ; he knew it, and she no less well. But what 
Sir William Hamilton did not know was that the 
man against whom he warned her was also aware 
of Nelson's idiosyncrasy and was using his know- 
ledge in a way that accounted for much of her 
conduct which both Greville and Sir William 
found inexplicable. It was not what Greville 
hinted, and Sir William tried to disbelieve that 
made her accept Signor Gibilmanna's unwelcome 
attentions. She had told Nelson of her past, but 
that past had neither included her children nor 
. . . my Lord of Bristol ! 



Nelson's Legacy 347 

Arnodeo Gibilmanna was from Sicily. He was 
a lawyer, settled in Girgenti, but with frequent 
engagements in the court-house at Palermo. He 
had been backwards and forwards whilst the King 
and Queen were sheltering there and so became 
acquainted with the Hamiltons. He had quickly 
fallen a victim to Emma's charms. But Emma 
was engrossed with Nelson, and at that period of 
her life would not have stooped to one of Gibil- 
manna's position. The lawyer bided his time, and 
found his opportunity when the Hamiltons sailed 
for Naples leaving the house vacant. Emma left 
many of her paraphernalia behind her, amongst 
them letters, clothes, and jewellery. The latter 
were restored to her ; Gibilmanna charging him- 
self with their care, and honestly restoring them, 
making indeed a journey to Naples for that 
purpose. Emma received him with kindness and 
gratitude, feeding alike his vanity and passion. 
He was really a low fellow and unworthy of what 
she bestowed on him. 

It was two years later that Gibilmanna came 
to England, and, having good introductions as 
well as his acquaintanceship with the Hamiltons, 
he was received into society, and used every 
opportunity to press his suit. Emma was, as 
has been seen, less exclusive in London than 
she had been in Naples, and at first was flattered 



34^ Nelson's Legacy 

by the idea that the lawyer, of whom, however, 
she had but faint recollection, had followed her 
from Italy. But in the end his Sicilian methods 
failed to commend themselves to her. Nelson 
was on his way home to console her for the 
Prince's indifference, society's neglect. If she had 
been again imprudent, she was characteristically 
again repentant. She thought to flout the Sicilian 
and rid herself of him easily, but reckoned with- 
out her man. He had strained his resources to 
follow her to England, and, after the favour she 
first showed him, had no mind to be balked of her 
possession. He began by pleading and playing 
the lover boldly. 

' Je suis avocat criminel, je comprends voire 
disposition amoureuse. I, I am the man for 
you, not ze English sailor, who is besides 
away.' 

His dark eyes could betray an immensity of 
feeling, and although he spoke bad French, broken 
English, and the Sicilian dialect, his voice was 
throughout low and musical. Emma was amour- 
euse, but for the moment Nelson held her heart. 
She said ' No ' and ' No ' again to Gibilmanna, and 
when he would have surprised her, forcing what 
she withheld, she let him see it was no assumed 
aversion she betrayed. Lust, but not love, as we 
have had occasion to remark before, knows no 



Nelson's Legacy 349 

scruples. It was Nelson who stood in Gibil- 
manna's way. Well, ce cher Nelson should know 
what her life had been in Naples. He had 
letters . . . 

Emma had forgotten her lost letters, and took 
quick alarm. What did he intend doing with 
them ? Showing them to Nelson. Whose, for 
instance ? Well, there was one from Lord Bristol. 
Emma crimsoned and her heart began to beat ; 
her mind had ever been uneasy about Lord Bristol ; 
he was at least as imprudent as herself, and if it 
came to Nelson's ears that she had had commerce 
with him, she knew not how she would explain the 
matter. Now she pleaded with Gibilmanna for 
the letter. And it is unsafe to turn suppliant when 
one has a favour to refuse. Emma paid dearly for 
the letter, which we reproduce for the better 
enlightenment of our readers. 

' Ever dearest Emma — Write me word, explicitly, 
how you are, what you are, and where you are ; and be 
sure that, wheresoever I am, still I am your's, my dearest 
Emma. 

'I went down to your Opera box two minutes after 
you left it ; and should have seen you on the morning of 
my departure — but was detained in the arms of Murphy, 
as Lady Eden expresses it, and was too late. 

' You say nothing of the adorable Queen ; I hope, she 
has not forgot me ; but, as Shakespeare says, " Who doats, 
must doubt " ; and I verily deem her the very best edition 



350 Nelson's Legacy 

of a woman I ever saw — I mean, of such as are not in folio, 
and are to be had in sheets. 

' This moment I receive your billet-doux and very dulcet 
it is I 

' I will frankly confess to you, that my health most 
seriously and urgently requires the balmy atmosphere of 
those I love and who love me. 

' Sweet Emma, adieu ! Remember me in the warmest 
and most enthusiastic stile, to your friend, to my friend, 
and the friend of human kind.' 

The letter itself was not convincing evidence 
of misdemeanour, and Nelson would never so have 
regarded it. The allusion to the Queen was in bad 
taste, but the time had gone by when Emma 
would ruin herself to protect the reputation of 
the Queen of Naples. 

Emma, however, never knew how to deal with 
scoundrels, and Gibilmanna profited greatly by 
working now on her fears, and now on her feelings. 
Her weakness proved her undoing. When he had 
ceased to value that which he had striven so 
violently to obtain, he began to persecute her 
with requests for money, and to render her life 
intolerable by his persistence. 

We have seen at Up Park how despair made 
her reckless. She was no less despairing nor less 
reckless when she had been forced into establish- 
ing Arnodeo Gibilmanna as stevv^ard of the estate 
at Merton, and lived in dread of what else he 



Nelson's Legacy 351 

might demand from her as the price of his con- 
tinued silence. 

This summer that was to prove the last of Sir 
William Hamilton's life saw Nelson again in 
England. Sir William wished to pay a farewell 
visit to his Milford property and Greville 
was ready to accompany him. Nothing would 
serve Emma but that she and Nelson should go 
too. She said she had never seen Milford and 
longed to know how it looked. In truth, by now 
she knew it was Greville' s design to alter the 
provisions of his uncle's will in his own favour, 
and she did not care that uncle and nephew 
should long be out of her sight together. Sir 
William was falling into something like second 
childhood, and could be moved this way and 
that. 

The journey was supposed to be for Sir William, 
but it resolved itself into a triumphant progress for 
the national hero. Nothing was more to Emma's 
liking. Huzzaing mobs and rocking steeples, fly- 
ing flags and public orations —these made the wine 
of life for her, and with it her cup could not be 
filled too often. At Swansea, however, the whim 
took her to stay and take a course of sea- 
bathing, such as had been wont to benefit her in 
her early womanhood. Nelson was wifling, but 
Greville impatient. She pretended she thought 



352 Nelson's Legacy 

it was because Sir William could not brook 
the quiet of Swansea that he wanted her to move 
on. 

' As I see it is pain to you to remain here, let me beg 
of you to fix your time for going. Whether I dye in 
Piccadilly or any other spot in England, 'tis the same to 
me ; but I remember the time when you wished for 
tranquillity, and now all visiting and bustle is your liking. 
However, I will do what you please, being ever your 
affectionate and obedient E. H.' 

The unfair charge pricked Sir William. 

' I neither love bustle nor great company,' he replied. 
' I am in no hurry, and am exceedingly glad to give 
every satisfaction to our best friend, our dear Lord Nelson. 
Sea-bathing is useful to your health ; I see it is and wish 
you to continue a little longer ; I care not a pin for 
the great world, and am attached to no one as much 
as you.' 

But Emma still was piqued and would not 
yield gracefully. ' I go when you tell me, the 
coach is ready,' she answered. ' This is not a 
fair answer to a fair confession of mine,' wrote 
Sir William, with some reason. 

Sir William only lived a few months more. He 
died in Piccadilly, in the presence of his wife and 
of Lord Nelson. At the last his mind seemed to 
be fully restored to him, and the knowledge of the 
position he had, if not created, at least accepted. 




LADY HAMILTON AS A BACCHANTE 

FROM THE PAINTING BV SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, IN THE 

POSSESSION OF THE EARL OF DURHAM 



Nelson's Legacy 353 

His words are on record, and have been often 
used to the end he had in mind. 

' Nelson, our friendship has been long, and I 
glory in my friend. I hope you will see justice 
done to Emma by ministers, for you know how 
great her services have been and what she has 
done for her country. Protect my dear wife ; and 
may God bless you, and give you victory, and 
guard you in battle.' And to his wife he said : 

' My incomparable Emma, you have never in 
thought, word, or deed offended me ; and let me 
thank you again, and again, for your affectionate 
kindness to me, all the time of our ten years' 
happy union.' 

In Sir William Hamilton Emma lost her truest 
friend, the bulwark that had protected her, at 
least as far as was possible, from the scorn and 
hostility of the world. Notwithstanding his in- 
tentions, but perhaps through Greville's vigilant 
and incessant endeavours, the provision made for 
her appeared inadequate to their friends — to the 
Queen of Naples, for example, and to Lord Nelson. 
But the unit by which the former measured wealth 
was not one to be accepted in this country, and 
the latter would have deemed any provision that 
was not limitless inadequate to the merits of his 
beloved. The actual amount was three hundred 
pounds in ready money, the contents of the house 



354 Nelson's Legacy 

in Piccadilly, and an income of eight hundred 
pounds per annum. Inasmuch as to the last he 
counted upon his pension being continued to his 
widow, and some monetary compensation being 
made to her for her services to her country. Sir 
William's memory is surely not to be considered 
as sullied by parsimony in his ordering of Emma's 
affairs. Her origin and upbringing being taken 
into consideration, she might indeed be regarded 
as fortunate in the material position in which she 
was now confirmed. Moreover, there was still 
Nelson to protect and provide for her interests. 

Nelson took immediate steps to repair what 
he deemed the shortcoming of Sir William Hamil- 
ton's will. Almost before the funeral of her hus- 
band had been accomplished with every mark of 
the royal recognition that had been denied to him 
in his lifetime, Nelson settled an annual income 
of twelve hundred pounds for her benefit. It was 
to be paid in monthly instalments. He further 
gave her unrestricted occupation of Merton Place 
and made a separate provision for Horatia. He 
took up his responsibilities eagerly, having no 
hesitation in making definite that which had long 
been obvious. 

Emma's situation, in a word, would now appear 
both comfortable and secure even to persons 
accustomed by inheritance to luxury and freedom 



Nelson's Legacy 355 

from monetary care. Nevertheless, it is a fact 
that the day Sir William Hamilton died marked 
the end of Emma's prosperity. Henceforth we see 
the clouds menacing and ever more heavy. Her 
history is one to which it is unnecessary to add 
moral reflection. He who runs may read, and, 
reading, may well be dismayed. No better illus- 
tration is ever likely to be forthcoming of the 
evanescent nature of fortune won by means incon- 
sistent with virtue. 

The first effect of her husband's death was to 
deprive her of the ostensible guarantee of what 
the world calls respectability. To a certain extent 
it had been necessary and politic to accept the 
guarantee given by Sir William's countenance that 
the friendship between her and Nelson was platonic. 
Blenheim might imitate Windsor in refusing to 
receive Lady Hamilton, and Canterbury might 
take the cue from Blenheim, but not one of the 
three could prove that that which satisfied Emma's 
husband was just cause for their condemnation. 
They had to rely for her exclusion, as they could do 
securely enough, on her ill-conduct prior to her 
marriage. But with the death of Sir William 
Hamilton the polite world felt itself released from 
the obligation of longer maintaining the fiction, 
and the claims of Lady Nelson to her husband's 
society were now again put forward. It is a mis- 



356 Nelson's Legacy 

fortune that they were pressed in such a manner, 
and at such a time, for it seemed a concerted attack 
on one who, for the moment at least, was unable 
to defend herself. Nelson's reply was vigorous 
and complete. He had done with Lady Nelson 
for once and for ever. He would not pretend 
otherwise, nor ' offer her a consideration which 
she had ever denied to him and his friends.' 

Emma was not inconsolable at the death of 
her husband, yet disposed to offer more than a 
show of resistance to Nelson's decision that as soon 
as her mourning would permit she should accom- 
pany him to Merton, and take up her position 
there definitely and for ever. Nelson neither in 
battle nor at any time had respect for formal 
convention, but was possessed of a kind of honest 
courage very different from bravado, which, had 
the woman of his choice been worthy of him, 
might have won for her eventually the respect 
he claimed. But this was not to be. 

Greville did his share towards making Emma's 
next step inevitable. The breath was hardly out 
of his uncle's body before he threw off all restraint 
in his dealings with the widow. He had now come 
thoroughly to dislike her, and had no longer 
scruples in showing it. He gave her notice that 
she must at once quit the late ambassador's town 
house. As executor he was prepared to satisfy 



Nelson*s Legacy 357 

her claims; as purist, moralist, formalist, as 
Charles Greville in short, he would not countenance 
her staying there one hour in the enjoyment of 
Nelson's company. Nelson would have hurried her 
to Merton, but at Merton Gibilmanna was estab- 
lished, and she could not face the position she 
had herself created. Her one hope was that she 
might buy off the Sicilian with money. He often 
said he hated England and longed for his own 
country. The more she cared for Nelson and 
clung to his regard for her, the more was the 
scoundrel able to work upon her fears. She would 
not go to Merton until she had received from 
Greville the means to persuade him away. She 
removed to a small house. No. 11, Clarges Street, 
there to wait the proving of Sir William Hamil- 
ton's will, and the distribution of the objects of 
viHu he had accumulated. Nelson fumed and 
fretted at the delay, but she was able to soothe 
him. 

At length everything was in order and Emma 
had money enough at her command to satisfy 
even Italian cupidity. She went back to Merton 
with Nelson to take up her abode there openly as 
his mistress. Gibilmanna was given £800 for all 
the letters in his possession and the relinquishment 
of any claim to her society. It was like Emma's 
imprudence that she neither checked nor counted 



358 Nelson's Legacy 

what he restored to her. She had never known 
the full extent to which she had been robbed, she 
only knew the full extent to which she had been 
terrorised. She paid him all that he asked, seized 
the packet he gave her, and destroyed it. Now she 
could face Nelson and her future. And indeed for 
a time it seemed as if she would behave prudently. 
She had Nelson and her child, and Merton was an 
over-growing interest. 

But the disregard shown to public opinion by 
the open way they were living together as man 
and wife increased the disapprobation of the Court 
and the Ministry, and decreased Emma's chance 
of obtaining pecuniary recognition of any claims 
she might make upon the Government. Whilst 
Nelson lived this did not trouble her greatly ; at 
least we cannot lay to her charge that she was 
mercenary. 

It is not part of our scheme to follow Nelson's 
rapid movements in pursuit of the French fleet, 
or to detail all he did prior to his culminating 
triumph and glorious death in the Bay of Trafalgar. 
During all the period covered by these high affairs 
he was of necessity often absent from his Emma. 
With a sense of discipline contrasting favourably 
with his sense of morality, he ever refused her 
reiterated, if somewhat insincere, entreaties to let 
her join him on his ship. How ardent his love 



Nelson's Legacy 359 

for her was, how constantly his thoughts were with 
her, his frequent letters show. 

' You, my own Emma, are my first and last thoughts, 
and to the last moment of my breath they will be occupied 
in leaving you independent of the world, and all I long 
in the world that you will be a kind and affectionate Mother 
to my dear daughter Horatia. But, my Emma, your 
Nelson is not the nearer being lost to you for taking care 
of you in case of events which are only known when they 
are to happen and to an all wise Providence. I hope for 
many years of comfort with you, only think of all you 
wish me to say, and you may be assured it exceeds if 
possible your wishes. May God protect you and my 
dear Horatia prays ever your most faithful and affection- 
ate.' 

Horatia suffering from an attack of smallpox, 
her father was in an agony of apprehension. 

' My beloved, how I feel for your situation, and that 
of our dear Horatia, our dear child. Unexampled love, 
never, I trust will be diminished, never ; no, even death 
with all his terrors would be jubilant compared even to 
the thought. Dear wife, good adorable friend, how I 
love you, and what I would not give to be with you at 
this moment, for I am for ever all yours.' 

And once more : 

* My own dearest beloved Emma, Your own Nelson's 
pride and delight. I find myself within six days of the 
Enemy, and I have every reason to hope that the sixth 
of June will immortalise your own Nelson, your fond 



36o Nelson's Legacy 

Nelson. May God send me victory, and us a happy and 
speedy meeting. Adl. Cockrane is sending home a vessel 
this day, therefore only pray for my success, and my 
Laurels I shall with pleasure lay at your feet, and a sweet 
kiss will be an ample reward for all your faithful Nelson's 
hard fag, for Ever and Ever I am your faithful, ever 
faithful and affectionate Nelson and Bronte.' 

He did not live long enough to realise that his 
love was expended on a woman who every day, 
almost every hour, was proving herself unworthy, , 
of it. Emma had already begun to take spirits, \ '^ 
her kindness to her child became intermittent, and 
she found occasion to quarrel with many of her 
friends and neighbours. In every way she was 
showing the effect of that loosening of moral fibre 
incidental to her mode of life. Unstable in her 
habits, given over to the pleasures of the table, 
her figure and complexion began to suffer ; the 
former became gross and the latter blotchy. Her 
last attempt to improve the one, and correct the 
other, antedated Nelson's last voyage. 

She went again to Southend for the sea-bathing 
that had so often stood her in good stead. There, 
by a strange coincidence, she met that very Jane 
Powell who had been her fellow-servant and com- 
panion at Mrs. Budd's. Jane exclaimed at her 
portliness, and Emma retorted with the other's 
wrinkles, the prominence of her bones, the thin- 



Nelson's Legacy 361 

ness of her hair. Jane tells us that she found 
Emma in every way altered from the good-natured, 
good-hearted girl she had known. Jane was at 
the zenith of her career as a great artist, and, having 
no cause for jealousy, may well be accepted as a 
veracious chronicler. 

It was whilst at Southend exchanging confi- 
dences with Jane Powell, and incidentally exhibit- 
ing herself as a changed and deteriorated character, 
that Emma heard Nelson had anchored at Spit- 
head. She knew he would be displeased she had 
left Horatia, only recently recovered from her ill- 
ness, and needing sea-bathing at least as urgently 
as her mother. She hurried back with all speed to 
Merton, in order that he should find her at her post. 
She greeted him with extravagant demonstration 
of affection. She kept herself well in hand all the 
time of his visit, abstaining from spirits and 
holding her temper in check. But perhaps the 
restraint she put upon herself made it easy for 
her, when his summons came, to urge him to 
obey it. 

' Your country calls you. Nelson, and you must 
go,' she exclaimed grandiloquently. 

' If there were more Emmas there would be more 
Nelsons,' he answered huskily. It never entered 
his head that already his company irked her, 
that she found his goodness and simplicity alike 



362 Nelson's Legacy 

uncongenial, and the dutifulness he expected was 
a mere mask to her impatience of restraint. He 
never doubted or distrusted her. His love was 
as loyal as his nature, and no greater praise can 
be accorded it. He had been months in search 
of the elusive Villeneuve, incidentally enduring 
untold hardships of cold and sea-sickness and the 
always increasing maladies of a body that matched 
his spirit so ill. The repose at Merton with Emma 
seemed happiness almost too great ; it was calm 
after storm, harbour after open sea. He was 
engrossed, too, with Horatia ; fatherhood was 
extraordinarily precious to him. 

But when the call came it found him ready. 
At half-past ten at night, after a farewell to both 
of them, the poignancy of which we need not 
chronicle, he entered his post-chaise, and started 
for Portsmouth on the first stage of his last 
journey. Here is his own record : 

' Friday night at half past ten, drove from dear, dear 
Merton, where I left all that I hold dear in this world, to 
go to serve my King and country. May the great God 
whom I adore enable me to fulfil the expectations of my 
country, and if it is His good pleasure that I should return, 
my thanks will never cease being offered up to the throne 
of His Mercy. If it is His good Providence to cut short 
my days upon earth, I bow with the greatest submission, 
relying that He will protect those so dear to me that I 
leave behind. His will be done. Amen. Amen. Amen.' 



Nelson's Legacy 363 

At Trafalgar he found the foe he sought. His 
plans were perfected and completely prepared. In 
his cabin he prayed once more. 

' May the great God, whom I worship, grant to 
my country, and for the benefit of Europe in general, 
a great and glorious victory ; and may no miscon- 
duct in any one tarnish it, and may humanity after 
victory be the predominant feature in the British 
fleet ! For myself individually I commit my life 
to Him who made me, and may His blessing alight 
on my endeavours for serving my country faith- 
fully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause 
which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. 
Amen.' 

For a brief space he turned his attention to the 
worldly affairs of Emma and Horatia, specially 
recommending them to the care of his country. He 
deemed it unnecessary to mention his relations, 
for whom he had already made ample provision. 
He spent the last moments before going on deck 
to engage in battle, in writing to the love of his 
life. 

' My dearest beloved Emma, the dear friend of my 
bosom, the signal has been made that the enemies' com- 
bined fleet is coming out of port. May the God of Battles 
crown my endeavours with success ; at all events I will 
take care that my name shall be always most dear to you 
and to Horatia, both of whom I love as much as my 
own life ; and as my last writing before the battle will 



364 Nelson's Legacy 

be to you, so I hope to God that I shall live to finish the 
letter after the battle. May Heaven bless you, prays 

y^"^ Nelson and Bronte.' 

Cetera quis nescit ? From the world-famous 
signal to the parting sigh, ' Thank God I have done 
my duty/ every word and incident is stored up 
in the treasure-chamber of England's national in- 
heritance. 

' Take care of my poor Lady Hamilton. Kiss 
me, Hardy.' ' Remember that I leave Lady 
Hamilton and my daughter to my country.^ 

Emma had yet nearly ten years to hve. How 
they were spent can be briefly chronicled. For 
with the end of her connection with the great 
gentleman who made her his wife, and the greater 
hero who threw the halo of his name around 
her tarnished reputation, her real interest ceases. 
And henceforward the relation of her career is 
one unbroken record of darkness, disaster, and 
downfall. 

The decade beginning by Nelson's open grave 
on January 10th, 1806, and ending beside her own 
on January 15th, 1815, is seen as a period of wild 
extravagance and wilder dissipation, of sordid 
debt, ever-increasing difficulties, and disregarded 
appeals. Everyone, it appeared to her, was to 
blame for her distresses, the true cause of which 



Nelson's Legacy 365 

was hidden from her. Canker in the bud, flaw in 
the flower, that was the beginning and end of the 
explanation. The evil, as we have seen, was 
anterior to her birth ; it was the root itself that 
held a worm in it. 

It would be wholly unprofitable to examine 
the details of Emma's life during these ten disas- 
trous years. Those that stand out, and fitly 
end our chronicle, are sufficiently indicative to 
permit any of our readers who are curious in 
morbid degeneration to divine the others ; all the 
material is at hand. Facilis descensus Averni. 
Emma was no exception to the rule. Already she 
had descended far on the road ; now were her 
steps to gather impetus. There are persons who 
seem unable, by nature of their temper and con- 
stitution, to live within limits of propriety at 
any time or under any circumstance. Lady 
Hamilton was one of these. The death of 
Nelson left her with Merton unencumbered and 
an income that would have seemed fabulous 
wealth to her grandmother, Mrs. Kidd of 
Hawarden — a great fortune even to that father 
who misbegot her and suffered for his sin at Nesse. 
To Emma it was alike insufficient for her needs 
and incompatible with her claims. She mourned 
Nelson as one who had the right to mourn, publicly, 
and with the intention to draw the eyes of the world 



366 Nelson's Legacy 

to herself and the share she had had in his great- 
ness. One picture of her shows her hovering hke 
an angel over his tomb. This she herself caused 
to be painted, and the caricaturists quickly pre- 
pared another, which is probably familiar to all 
our readers. 

When ' Emma forlorn and weeping for Nelson ' 
was treated as a jest she threw off her mourning 
garb. Now she resumed her former association 
with such of her neighbours and the fashionable 
world as maintained their friendship with her. 
When these proved few and fickle, she sought the 
society of those literary, musical, artistic, and 
theatrical persons whose morals were more akin 
to her own. Her generosity was as extreme and 
wanting in prudence, and even justice, as it had 
always been. Countless claims, never refused 
while she had it in her power to satisfy them, were 
made upon her purse by former recipients of 
Nelson's bounty, and by a host of needy Neapolitans 
who had known her in Naples and had suffered in 
the Revolution. 

Greville used every means at his command to 
increase her embarrassments ; delaying payments 
and making deductions, in a manner calculated to 
inflame her temper and irritate her, as it did more 
than once, into telling him to keep his money. 

Yet might she have been only inconvenienced 



Nelson's Legacy 367 

and not distressed, but for the return of Gibil- 
manna to the attack. It seemed that whilst at 
Merton he had found or stolen other letters, 
Nelson's own, and these, he told her, he was now 
about to publish. Nelson's name was on all 
tongues, and the scandal had like to be outspoken 
in the extreme, and many now in office would be 
scathed if they saw in print in what low esteem 
the nation's hero held them. Emma had still 
sufficient prudence left her to know the harm 
that might accrue, and still sufficient regard for 
one who had so truly cared for her, as to desire 
to shelter his memory. Gibilmanna played his 
game well. He quickly saw that in her at present 
unprotected condition she would be the prey of 
the first adventurer who came along. He it was 
who now charged himself with her affairs, and 
brought them from bad to worse. Extravagance 
followed extravagance, and when her resources 
failed she was for ever importuning the Govern- 
ment to recognise what she had done for Italy 
and Nelson ! 

The next few years show a sequence of passion- 
ate appeals to Ministers to give as a right what 
they might have been disposed to grant as an act 
of grace had her life been less flagrant. We have 
it on record that she made overtures to the old 
Duke of Queensberry, for many years her admirer, 



368 Nelson's Legacy 

an amorist by nature and habit, and a man of 
large means. But age had rendered his Grace 
cynical, and it may well be, unequal to the grati- 
fication of appetites almost lost. Emma had 
beauty still, but her bulk was increasing, and she 
was now more than forty. He told her plainly she 
had outstayed her market ; had nothing left worth 
giving. He promised, however, to remember her 
in his will, amiably prophesying that she would 
not have to wait long for her legacy. But, though 
he kept his word, leaving her an annuity of five 
hundred pounds and obligingly dying next year, 
Emma never received a penny of the money, for 
litigation over his last testament followed his demise, 
and before that was settled Emma's own troubles 
were over. 

Her last comfort perished with her mother. 
Well, according to her lights, had that honest 
woman kept the promise made to her dying 
husband so many years before. She had 
never faltered in her loving watch over her 
erring daughter. From the time she joined her 
in Edgeware Row, until the day when she breathed 
her last, she had combined in her one person all 
the functions of mother, nurse, companion, house- 
keeper, confidante, friend — had discharged every 
service that woman can render to her sex. Never 
obtruding herself in the company of the great, 



Nelson's Legacy 369 

she had, nevertheless, won their esteem and even 
their affection. The King of Naples called her 
an angel, the Duke of Sussex was her friend. 
Emma did not exaggerate when she declared that 
she had lost the best of mothers, and that her 
wounded heart, her comfort, all, was buried in 
her grave. 

Merton had now to be given up, but could not 
be let, and for a long time was impossible to sell. 
It was only by vague assertions of the intentions 
of Ministers to grant her prayers that she was able 
to stave off the importunity of tradespeople. Gibil- 
manna, having sucked her dry, deserted her at 
the only time he might have been of use to her. 
For it needs a lawyer to circumvent one of his 
own craft, and it was lawyers now who swam like 
sharks in the waters of affliction to which she 
had been brought. The moment came when she 
who had been the wife of an ambassador, and 
the friend of a queen, was arrested for debt, and 
thrown into prison like any common malefactor. 
It was the humblest of her friends who came 
to her assistance. Alderman Smith of Merton 
it was by whose graces she was liberated 
from the rules of the King's Bench. He, good 
man, would have no reward from Emma for his 
generosity. He even shrank from an interview, 
knowing to what depths she had fallen, not wish- 



370 Nelson's Legacy 

ing to look upon her in her degradation. But, 
when she was almost immediately re-arrested, at 
the instance of a coachbuilder, and he heard that 
there were other creditors only awaiting their 
opportunity, he took upon himself the task of 
arranging her affairs. All her possessions, includ- 
ing her presents from the Queen of Naples, and 
those from Nelson, were sold. She had the satis- 
faction presently, if it were a satisfaction to such 
as she had become, of knowing that her creditors 
lost nothing, although she herself had lost all. 

It would have seemed that the lowest depths 
of her humiliation had now been reached. But 
there was more to come. With a depth of meanness 
only possible in one of foreign extraction Arnodeo 
Gibilmanna now proceeded to obtain from a 
publisher that which he had received again and 
again from Emma in order to avoid publicity. In 
the autumn of 1814 Messrs. Thomas Love well and 
Co., of Staines House, Barbican, announced ' The 
Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton,' with a 
supplement of ' Interesting Letters by Distinguished 
Characters.' 

Emma in her enfeebled health and broken 
spirit, could not face the hubbub that immediately 
arose. Everyone had guessed, now everyone would 
know, what manner of life she had lived. The 
fiction of Horatia's parentage, the fact of Sir William 



Nelson's Legacy 371 

Hamilton's connivance, the story of her transfer- 
ence from Greville, her adventures with Captain 
Willett Payne, would be all disclosed. She put 
her hands to her ears and found them burning. 
She did not know what letters of hers had been 
destroyed, nor what would be in these two shame- 
less volumes. There was nothing for it but flight, 
and upon flight she decided. 

Taking boat in the Thames, the unhappy 
Horatia by her side, she started for Calais. She 
meant to lie perdus until the storm blew over ; 
but she was seized with internal pains in the short 
voyage and arrived in a pitiable condition. Then, 
not because her resources were exhausted, but 
because she was ever unfit to manage her own 
affairs and was now reduced by illness, she caused 
herself to be carried to a poor lodging in the Rue 
Fran9aise, where, a prey to melancholy confirmed 
by ill-health, she passed six miserable months. 
She drank deeply, and proved herself unfit in every 
way for the care of a child. 

Mr. Cadogan, the nephew who had taken her 
father's place with his uncle at Hawarden so many 
years ago, came to the rescue of one whom he had 
always been willing to acknowledge as kinswoman. 
But he arrived too late. The wages of sin is Death, 
and in the miserable lodging at Calais had they 
already been paid to Emma, Lady Hamilton. 



372 Nelson's Legacy 

Dropsy intervening upon a chill, in the second 
week of the New Year, in the presence of Horatia 
and one faithful servant, she rendered up her 
account. 

For the rest, reflections crowd upon the mind ; 
the vanity of worldly success, the evanescence of 
power based on beauty, the unreliability of 
friendship founded on self-interest, the rarity of 
human gratitude. With these our self-appointed 
task ends, and we close the volume, trusting 
that its veracity will commend it to the student, 
and its moderation to the critic. Much has been 
omitted that might offend the susceptibilities of 
those to whom truth is less grateful than delicacy. 
Nothing has been added to distort the picture of 
one who having betrayed its hero had still the 
temerity to ask the favour of his country. 



Printed sy Cassell & Comiany, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. 
F 20.3214 



nC^ •^>^ 



\^^:. 



\y ■/>, 






o 0' 



'. -^ 






.-^^^ .0 



0>' 



.,0 



t>' 



x^'-^ 






-^^ 



o 0' 









,'\ 



-J,- 






■'^ ,^ 






<2 0^ 



<''^^' 









rO' 



.^^ -^^ 



-t\ O 



aV -^v 






-i\ 



^ "^. ^^ 



"bo^ 



v^^ ''^^ 



.A^ 



o5 -n^. 









o'^' 



■oeV 



^^^ "^"^ 



'^. 






V\^ -^.r. 






,G^^ 



-0' 



o 0^ 



vOo. 



v5 -n^. 















P 't.^ 



0^' 



•v 









-0 






^^ 



\ .. \ 1 » 



'^, 



"cf. 






•^< 



•^ .A 



^/^_^ 



'<' V, 






^ 



V 






.^ ^^.. 



<D 



« ^ip 


















'^^, 



» -5-iN- ■^ 



■^oo^ 



v\^ 



,-0' 



^'\> 



y' 



•>-^ ^N 






.-•v- 



'^ ^V ,^ ^^ / 






.ti ' 



vX^^^ 






''P 









^\^ 



;.-\ 



^<. 






^j. 









C' 









6 -n^ 



A^ 









x>^" 









-Jl 






aV ^„ 



^ - s ' <^ /■ -^ 












,o'^ 



#^ 



V 






'^^^, 



■% * ,0 N ^ .^"^ 



f. 









,^ 












■X^" . 






!l ^ 



O^ 



2 \ 









'-'d-' A 



0^^' 






^, 



11 x (. ^ 






.^\' 









,0^ 



'%,<#' 



<, iX^ « ^ ' * * 









■/', 



^J) 



•"oo^ 



0^ 



,^^' 



.^^x. 



X^ 



?5 -%, 



)^ , -^ ' 



■:\ 






x^ 



.0^-. 



v^ ^ ^ "^ " 






^> 



